Steve Ballmer: Financial meltdown big problem for tech firms

>i>On hand to analyze the news was the head of one of Wall Street's long time stalwarts, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. A downcast Ballmer stated gloomily that no one was immune to the global economic meltdown, not even tech giants like Google or Microsoft. He says he expects consumer and business spending to both languish under the new bleak climate.

At the news conference in Norway this morning, he commented, "Financial issues are going to affect both business spending and consumer spending, and particularly ... spending by the financial services industry. I think one has to anticipate that no company is immune to these issues."

Mr. Ballmer declined to go into more details about precisely how and how much the tech community is suffering from the downhill ride taken by world markets. He also declined to give details on whether the crisis was slowing sales of Microsoft's flagship products, such as Windows Vista.