I’ll stick my neck out again with a Microsoft prediction. CEO Steve Ballmer will be out of a job within the next 12 months.
The major reason, whether stated or not, will be Microsoft’s staggering incompetence in adapting to (much less anticipating) changes in the online and real-time computing landscape. It may not be all his fault, but the buck stops with him.
Seek Nuance 
So if Balmer goes, who’ll take his place? Ozzie?
I’ve thought about this for several days. I think it’s a great bit of OOTB thinking. I do think that it wont happen (putting my marker down, again :-)) because while I support the assertion that he needs to fall on his sword, I think that there are too many bright and ambitious people in the org that believe that the longer uncle fester remains, then the more likely that the day that he resigns will be *their* day to get the job. so he will be propped up for a long time to come so that the rest of the folks beneath him can focus on palace intrigue.