Steve Ballmer Found A Way To Cope With Leaving Microsoft - And His Family Teased Him 'Mercilessly' For It

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Steve Ballmer announced plans to step down from his CEO role at Microsoft August of 2013.

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He'd joined the company in 1980 as the company's 30th employee, making $50,000. By the end of his 34-year stint, he was worth $21 billion+, making him the 32nd richest person in the world.

By December of 2013, Ballmer was starting to unplug from his gig as CEO. He didn't want to set any new plans in motion before a new CEO replaced him.

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As a result, for the first time, Ballmer found himself with a lot of spare time and he wasn't sure how to fill it. So he turned to CBS's hit show, "The Good Wife," and binge-watched episodes, according to Bloomberg Businessweek's Ashlee Vance.

Ballmer's family estimates the retired billionaire watched 100 episodes, mostly from bed on his Microsoft Surface, in a two-week span.

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"My kids teased me about it mercilessly," Ballmer tells Vance. "They said, 'Dad, how's the wife?'"

Ballmer says he's out of his funk now. He is the proud new owner of the LA Clippers, a team he purchased for $2 billion. And of his TV binge he says, he wasn't depressed.

"It was more like, 'Wow, this is weird. I have nothing to worry about right this minute.'?"