Ballmer defends Nadella, says the Microsoft CEO 'allowed good karma to happen'

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Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Satya Nadella made the controversial comments from his own fortunate experience.

Rachel Lerman

Staff Writer- Puget Sound Business Journal

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Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer defended CEO Satya Nadella in an interview with CBS This Morning Tuesday.

"When you're the CEO of a big company, you have to be thinking about sort of seven dimensions of everything you say," Ballmer said in the CBS interview. "Satya spoke about his personal experience, actually he allowed good karma to happen and good things happened to him and he was very fortunate, and that's his genuine belief in life."

Ballmer was referring to comments Nadella made during a women-in-technology conference several weeks ago when he suggested women should not ask for raises, but rather, allow the system to reward them accordingly. Nadella suggested this would result in "good karma" for them.

The comments generated a massive backlash and Nadella, who took the Microsoft reins from Ballmer in February, apologized and retracted his statements.

During the CBS interview, Ballmer said not all people have the same opportunities, particularly women in technical fields. He allowed that Nadella's statement was probably not what the audience at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference wanted to hear.

"But you do have people who don't necessarily get a fair shake through the process, particularly a group of women in technology — that's probably a tougher place to be," Ballmer said.

Nadella has since promised to take action to diversify the tech giant.

Rachel Lerman covers technology and retail for the Puget Sound Business Journal.