Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer thinks that the company he used to lead needs some direction when it comes to the mobile devices business. Ballmer expressed these views, and many more, in a new interview.

The chat, as posted on Business Insider showed that while Ballmer thinks that Microsoft is headed in a good direction on a number of fronts, including its Surface and Xbox product lines, the mobile phone business needs some guidance under current CEO Satya Nadella.

"And the company really has to chart a direction in mobile devices. Because if you're going to be mobile-first, cloud-first you really do need to have a sense of what you're doing in mobile devices. I had put the company on a path. The board as I was leaving took the company on a path by buying Nokia, they kind of went ahead with that after I told them I was going to go. The company, between me and the board, had taken that sort of view. Satya, he's certainly changed that. He needs to have a clear path forward. But I'm sure he'll get there."

Ballmer still owns a large percentage of Microsoft shares and has a lot of contacts in the company:

"I talk every quarter to the CFO. I meet with Satya what probably amounts to four or five times a year — either to brainstorm something or just as a shareholder, we'll sit down and chat. That's always quite helpful for me and hopefully him in terms of thinking things through. I still have a number of friends and colleagues who occasionally want to brainstorm or chat about something, and that's always fun."

He left the CEO position in 2013 and stepped down from the Microsoft board of directors in 2014. Since his August 2013 departure, shares of MSFT have climbed 44% and Microsoft's quarterly revenue has grown by 27%.

Source: Business Insider