Microsoft chief's bonus slashed for third year Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, has missed out on half his bonus for the third year running, as the software company's board held him accountable for a regulatory lapse in Europe and weak performance in its Windows and internet units. The cut left the Microsoft chief with total annual remuneration of $1.3m, around the same that he earned in each of the previous two years and far below the $378m handed this year to Apple's Tim Cook and the $96m handed to Oracle's Larry Ellison, both of whom received large stock awards. While crediting Mr Ballmer with boosting the company's profits and steering an overhaul of some of its most important products, Microsoft's board also said his pay was influenced by the company's failure to give some PC buyers in Europe a choice of browsers on their new machines. The lapse contravened an undertaking given to antitrust regulators in 2009 and is expected to lead shortly to a penalty from Brussels. Last year, Mr Ballmer was handed only half his potential bonus as a result of disappointing sales of Windows smartphones and weakness in the Windows PC business, as well as his failure to match Apple in the new tablet computer market. The cause of his bonus reduction the year before was also related to the rise of mobile computing, as Microsoft scrapped a new smartphone called the Kin soon after launching the device. Mr Ballmer is set to make his latest attempt to catch up with Apple later this month, with Microsoft due to release both a new tablet computer, called Surface, and smartphone operating system.