The second clause is just so, so true. According to Wikipedia (correctly on this occasion), "Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft on June 11, 1980". And Microsoft have been going down so much since that date ;-)
--- Company History ---
Ballmer was taken on by MicroSoft for his marketing wisdom. Following his appointment, MicroSoft cancelled the project (code name MS-DOS) to create an operating system for the IBM 5150 PC, conserving programming resources for the more promising Commodore 64 platform. On the day that IBM executives visited MicroSoft at their headquarters, Gates and Ballmer were attending an informal drag race in their Porsches. Consequently, Digital Research won the contract for the IBM PC operating system, and CP/M-86 became the standard PC operating system between 1981 and 1995.
The launch of the MacIntosh platform in 1986, provided an opportunity for MicroSoft to rejoin the race as application developers. When personally offered pre-production MacIntosh computers by Steve Jobs, Ballmer declined, saying "If you can't deliver the graphics on a NorthStar Horizon, they ain't worth doing". He emphasised the point by eating a chair. MicroSoft's Word (word processor) and Excel (spreadsheet) applications were minor hits for the Sinclair QL.
Under Ballmer's guidance, MicroSoft resisted radical change. A skunk programme (code name Windows) to create a graphical user interface running on top of CP/M-86 was cancelled, and MicroSoft declined the opportunity to participate in IBM's OS/2 project. However, MicroSoft maintained their dominance in delivering Basic language environments for computers such as the Bulgarian Pravetz-82 Apple II clone.
OS/2 was conceived as a next generation operating system, that could use new hardware features whilst maintaining a degree of compatibility with popular standard CP/M-86 applications such as Lotus 1-2-3. Early implementations of OS/2 were clumsy and the alternative DR-GEM operating system became the standard. Today, Digital Research dominate the market for PC operating systems and for DR-GEM productivity applications.
For many years, MicroSoft survived on sales of the legacy Trafficator productor. The company is now under Chapter 11 protection whilst auditors try to sell their promising BeOS operating system for PCs.
--- Paul Allen and MicroSoft ---
Paul Allen, a founder of MicroSoft is sueing Ballmer for mismanagement of the company. From a six foot dinghy in Seattle harbour, Allen is reported to have said "What the **** has this ******* ****** done with all of my ******* ******* money. *** hole. Where the **** is the yacht that I was promised?"
Edited: GEM for Windows wrt Digital Research.