> Microsoft when Balmer took over had one direction to go: down
Not at all. As mentioned here in the Vanity Fair [1] article, the iPhone could have been a Micosoft product and now brings in more revenue than the entirety of Microsoft. Ballmer said "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance." If you cut through everything else said, I think this is pretty damning.
[1] http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2012/08/microsoft-lost-mo...