“Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to ‘kill’ internet search leader Google Inc. in an obscenity-laced tirade, and Google chased a prized Microsoft executive ‘like wolves,’ according to documents filed in an increasingly bitter legal battle between the rivals.,” The Sydney Morning Herald reports. “The allegations, filed in a Washington state court, represent the latest salvos in a showdown triggered by Google’s July hiring of former Microsoft executive Kai Fu-Lee to oversee a research and development centre that Google plans to open in China. Lee started at Google the day after he resigned from Microsoft.”
The SMH reports, “The tug-of-war over Lee – known for his work on computer recognition of language – has exposed the behind-the-scenes animosity that has been brewing between two of high-tech’s best-known companies. Ballmer’s threat last November was recounted in a sworn declaration by a former Microsoft engineer, Mark Lucovsky, who said he met with Microsoft’s chief executive 10 months ago to discuss his decision to leave the company after six years. After learning Lucovsky was leaving to take a job at Google, Ballmer picked up his chair and hurled it across his office, according to the declaration. Ballmer then pejoratively berated Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Lucovsky recalled. ‘I’m going to f—ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again,’ the declaration quotes Ballmer. ‘I’m going to f—ing kill Google.'”
The SMH reports, “In a statement, Ballmer described Lucovsky’s recollection as a ‘gross exaggeration.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Isn’t Microsoft CEO Uncle Fester, er, Steve Ballmer, himself a “gross exaggeration?” After watching Monkey Boy dance, it’s remarkably easy to imagine chairs and expletives being hurled around Ballmer’s office. More Ballmer movies here.
In an interview with BusinessWeek, back in October 2004, Apple CEO Steve Jobs basically explained what’s happening at Microsoft: “How are monopolies lost? One day, the monopoly expires for whatever reason. But by then the best product people have left, or they’re no longer listened to… Who usually ends up running the show? The sales guy… And so the company goes through this tumultuous time, and it either survives or it doesn’t… Look at Microsoft — who’s running Microsoft? Right, the sales guy. Case closed.” Source: BusinessWeek
Steve Jobs: This era’s Nostradamus.
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Balmer is a toy boy. He couldn’t beat his way out of a paper bag.
Says a lot about the man and the company.
Now we can start a new saying for someone who throws a fit in an office room: “The boss just threw a “Ballmer!” ”
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It is great to have MS distracted by Google – that leaves room for Apple to take ground from Windows. Clearly MS is distracted and can’t get anything done.
too many fires, too many fronts. MS can not be everything to everyone
Balmer has serious personality issues.
Lightenup man otherwise youre gonna be dead in a few years! (on second thoughts – don’t…)
This is the same sort of talk documented at Microsoft in the 90s when execs would say things like “Cut off their oxygen supply” (their vow to obliterate Netscape).
Somebody might want to pull Baby GUI (get it?) aside and remind him that these quotes can and will be used against him in further antitrust cases.
Now we know it’s not about money, it’s about power and domination.
He wants to kill… oh, sorry, f—ing kill Google?
MS has a new slogan….
Microsoft: The world leading producer of crappy products and power-hungry nutjobs.
i think Ballmer is kinda sexy. I bet he smells like bacon when undressed.
The two “Steves” mentioned here couldn’t be any more different: On the one hand Jobs is a visionary. Able to “reinvent” himself or “bifurcate” into higher and higher levels of personal and professional attainment.
The other? Steve ‘Monkey Boy’ Ballmer obviously only operates off his brain stem. The kind of fool that in a real fight would be swatted like an insect. No wonder MSFT has been flat.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish”. Proverbs 29:18
Ah, rock on Steve!
If I were sitting in Ballmer’s office and saw those large sweat circles under his armpits, I ‘d probably run for some Right Guard before he had a chance to throw office furniture at me. Who knows what he might start throwing next, maybe his own feces in true monkey boy fashion ?
This is exactly how M$ became an illegal monopoly. Not really the best strategy when it comes to “innovating” to stay on top!
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Steve Ballmer… I’ve never seen Uncle fester that psychotic, someone should tell him to sit down, shut up the f**k up and behave before he hurts himself.