The whole story is enjoyable; especially the Ballmer Visit part. It's surprising to see the city council reacting that way to his visit. Something that is hard to understand in many parts of the world.
Maybe Ballmer was overkill in this situation. While I could see a local (German or even Bavarian since their German Headquarter is just out of Munich) manager with connections to members of the council being able to influence their decision, an American coming over and basically demanding from them to change their mind is probably the best way to enforce the idea even more.
The article mentions that the mayor had difficulties communicating in English good enough to feel comfortable. Add to that the slight dislike of American culture common with many people here, the high degree of local identification in southern germany and you get that result.
That said, there CEO flying over was probably the last straw they reverted to when everything else had failed ;)
