Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, was in Belgium for an event and spoke to reporters afterwards. In response to a question, Ballmer hinted at reevaluating its position on no longer making XP available to OEM and retail customers after June 30 based on customer feedback. This led to an avalanche of news stories speculating on whether Microsoft would relent and extend the deadline. Now Microsoft is trying to clear up any confusion created by Mr. Ballmer's statement and reiterated its plans for XP remain unchanged. Despite over 160,000 signatures on the Save XP petition, the spokesperson from Microsoft stated they have done research of their own and feel that, based on input and feedback from customers the deadline is the right decision. In an attempt to reconcile that stance with what Ballmer said, the spokesperson that they do listen to their customers and that is what they are basing the deadline decision on.