????眾所周知，鮑爾默性格外向，這也幫助微軟達成了許多筆交易。他早期從事銷售，這段經歷在他開展公司談判，尤其是任職初期解決微軟面臨的大量訴訟時起到了很大作用。

????鮑爾默接任首席執行官時，微軟正面臨美國政府和20個州激烈的反壟斷起訴。多年來，蓋茨的態度表明他要斗爭到底，絕不和解。取代蓋茨后，鮑爾默把盡快解決這些案件作為公司的頭等大事。

????他說，這不是錢的問題，而是關系到公眾的看法。

????鮑爾默說：“變成訴訟的靶子或被政府投訴非常尷尬，非常不舒服。它充滿了負面影響。人們會認為如果政府都開始投訴你，那你肯定是有問題的。這時候你要還說‘我們公司很好、很正派、充滿道德感’就很難站住腳。真的很難，就算你認為自己真的沒錯也無濟于事。”

????把這種情況放大數倍，大家就能理解鮑爾默上任后的處境。微軟的法律總顧問布拉德?史密斯回憶道，公司面臨著其他20個國家的反壟斷調查，加上美國40個州和哥倫比亞地區的206起集體訴訟。此外還有包括太陽微系統公司（Sun Microsystems）、美國在線（AOL）和IBM在內的12家競爭對手的一系列投訴。他說，顯然，那時候公司需要分出很大一部分精力應對這些問題。

????史密斯說：“我只想說，那可能是1990年到2010年這20年間，所有大型公司需要應對的法律危機中最嚴峻的一次。”

????史密斯說，微軟最后付出了50億到60億美元的和解費用（到了2005年，大多數官司都已經了結。）鮑爾默的務實觀念、交際能力和冷靜態度——對，你沒看錯——是解決這個問題的關鍵。

????史密斯說：“史蒂夫有著高超的人際交往能力。我認為他總是有能力與他人交往，傾聽別人的想法。我認為，在領導微軟銷售團隊的那些年，他的這些技能得到了充分的磨練。因此，在就任首席執行官的第一年，他就憑借這種獨一無二的能力，經受住了這樣的考驗。”??

????Ballmer's notoriously outgoing personality also helped Microsoft strike deals. His early career experience in sales translated well during corporate negotiations, particularly in assisting the company to settle the numerous lawsuits that faced the company early in his tenure.

????When Ballmer took over as CEO, Microsoft was in the midst of fighting a bitter antitrust complaint brought against the company in 1998 by the U.S. government and 20 states. For several years, Gates' attitude suggested that he would rather fight the claims than settle; upon replacing Gates, Ballmer made it a top priority for the company to put the cases behind it as quickly as possible.

????It was less about the cost and more about public perception, he says.

????"Being the object of a lawsuit, effectively, or a complaint from your government is a very awkward, uncomfortable position to be in," Ballmer says. "It just has all downside. People assume if the government brought a complaint that there's really a problem, and your ability to say we're a good, proper, moral place is tough. It's actually tough, even though you feel that way about yourselves."

????Multiply that several times over and you get a sense of what Ballmer inherited. Brad Smith, Microsoft's General Counsel, recalls that the company was facing antitrust investigations in 20 other countries, plus 206 additional class-action lawsuits against Microsoft in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Add to that another set of complaints pending from 12 competitors, including Sun Microsystems, AOL (AOL) and IBM (IBM), and it's clear that the company had a major distraction on its hands, he said.

????"I would just say it was probably the biggest sort of legal overhang that any major company really had to address between say probably 1990 and 2010, in that 20-year period," Smith says.

????Settling the cases ended up costing Microsoft between $5 billion and $6 billion, Smith says. (By 2005, most of the settlements were finalized.) Ballmer's pragmatism, his relationship-building skills and his sense of calm -- yes, you read that correctly -- were all key to getting it done, Smith says.

????"Steve has great interpersonal skills," Smith says. "I think he's always had this ability to connect with other people, to listen to other people, and I think those skills were well-honed in the years that he led the sales force for Microsoft. And so he was able to bring a unique set of skills that were put to the test as CEO in his first year of doing this."??