Outgoing Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer has bid an emotional farewell to his colleagues at an annual employee meeting that is likely to be his last before leaving the company.
Ballmer, who is set to leave Microsoft within the year, told 13,000 Microsoft employees packed into a Seattle basketball arena on Thursday that the company will keep on innovating.
"We've been a great company for years. We will be a great company for many more years," he told staff, according to tech website ZDNet on Friday.
"You work for the greatest company in the world, soak it in," website TheVerge.com quoted him as saying.
"We will deliver the next big thing ... we will change the world again."
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Ballmer's comments appeared to address widespread criticism of his tenure, during which Microsoft saw Apple and Google take a commanding position in smartphones and tablet computers which are eroding the market for PCs on which Microsoft built its fortune.
Ballmer, 57, followed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates into the chief executive role in January 2000 and has built a personal fortune of some $US18 billion ($A19.32 billion).
In April the company announced that he would step down within a year.
