Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer have always had a special relationship and the two said it on several occasions, admitting that being two good friends helped them build the Redmond-based software empire that’s now pushed towards cloud services and devices.

But Steve Ballmer is no longer Microsoft’s CEO and ever since he left the company, he gradually stepped away from his fourth child, as he often referred to the firm, leaving Satya Nadella and Bill Gates in charge of a major reorganization started last year.

In the last few days, word online has it that Ballmer and Gates are no longer best buddies and judging by a recent interview that the former CEO had for CBS This Morning, it appears that rumors are indeed true.

Ballmer was invited to talk about this new adventure in the basketball world, as he recently purchased the LA Clippers, but when he was asked to talk about his relationship with Gates, the response was a little bit unexpected.

“We’ve dusted up many times”

Ballmer was often considered Bill’s best friend, but one episode that took place last year apparently damaged their relationship.

Back in 2013 when Steve was still the CEO of Microsoft, he told the board that he wanted to purchase Nokia’s Devices and Services unit, as part of a broader plan that would have allowed the software giant to continue its focus on mobiles.

At that time, the board of directors wasn’t really excited with the acquisition and Bill Gates himself also expressed his concerns regarding the deal.

Ballmer in his turn was extremely disappointed with the lack of support from Gates and threatened with his resignation if the board doesn’t allow the deal to go through. In the end, Microsoft purchased Nokia’s mobile business, but Steve Ballmer left the company in February 2014.

Now in the CBS interview, Ballmer sort of confirmed that he’s no longer Gates’ best friend, saying the following when he was asked about their relationship:

“We've dusted-up many times in our lives. That kind of stuff happens. We've done that before.”

Gone after 34 years

And this might be true. Ballmer spent 14 years at Microsoft’s helm and despite so many rumors, Bill Gates never wanted to return to the company while his friend was in charge of the entire business.

In February however, Bill Gates announced his comeback, taking over the technical adviser role to work together with Satya Nadella and his team on new products. It was more like “let’s fix what Steve broke down” kind of thing and there’s no doubt that Ballmer wasn’t pleased with it.

Also this year, Ballmer retired from the board of directors, stepping away completely from the company where he spent no less than 34 years. At this point, Steve Ballmer continues to be the number one individual shareholder at Microsoft.