“Former Microsoft executive Kai-Fu Lee has accused the software giant of incompetence in its plans to gain a business footing in China, and testified that an expletive-filled tirade from chairman Bill Gates was a low point before he defected to rival Google,” The Associated Press reports.
“In testimony during a hearing on Microsoft’s lawsuit against Lee and Google, Lee said on Tuesday he wrote a memo to another Microsoft executive saying he was ‘deeply disappointed at our incompetence in China – that we have wasted so many years in China with little to show for it.’ Lee went on to say in the email that he was embarrassed by Microsoft’s business practices and that people in the government joked about Microsoft’s internal politics,” The Associated Press reports. “He testified that one of the lowest moments of his career with Microsoft was a conversation in which Gates yelled at him and said the company had been ‘f—–‘ by the Chinese people and its government. Lee did not clarify the context of Gates’ comments.”
The Associated Press reports, “Redmond-based Microsoft has sued Google and Lee, who is known for his work on computer recognition of language, a key problem in search technology. Microsoft contends that Lee’s duties would violate the terms of an agreement he signed as part of his Microsoft employment contract. Microsoft also accused Lee of using insider information to get his job at Google… Attorneys for Google said in court on Tuesday that much of what Lee knew about the Chinese market came from his previous work experience at Apple Computer and other companies, and that Microsoft was exaggerating the extent of his work for Microsoft on China.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: F bomb this, f bomb that. These are the sounds of implosion, boys and girls. And we are grinning ear to ear. Keep concentrating on Google, guys. It’s all about Google. Google, Google, Google…
Advertisement: Windows XP: F—ing start something f—ed, you f—er.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Chair hurling Microsoft CEO Ballmer: ‘I’m going to f—ing kill Google’ – September 03, 2005
Cringely: Biggest threat to Microsoft might not be Google at all, but Apple – August 26, 2005
Thank you China.
Thank you Google.
Gee, that picture of Gates goes perfectly with the one of Steve “I Will Lick You NOW!” Ballmer. Kind of a yin-yang thing.
I love implosions. This is the Tao Of Microsoft.
Balmer & Gates–The “F” twins.
What would we do without Microsoft…(other than live happily)…who’s incompetence would we get to grin at?
“There was this man, giving a little talk. And for some reason, he was wearing an American flag for a shirt…and he liked to say the “F” word. A lot. “F” this and “F” that. And every time he said the “F” word, people for some reason, well, they’d cheer.” ~Forest Gump (a far more intelligent man than the one shown above)
Be careful kiddies, left unchecked, China will f–k us all. Anyone who goes into China to do business is automatically on the shit-end of the stick. The only one’s with the strategic advantage is the Chinese. This is America’s folly and we will rue the day.
damn, I would have loved to know about the context of that Gates monologue. Maybe it was copyright related…must have been, China doesn’t know anything about copyrights. Maybe some startup in China is copy-pasting Vista right now…excluding the bugs that is.
MDN u are overconcentrating on counting failures of Microsoft. Get back to Mac business and news and leave that stuff to Windows forums:)
why does everyone act as if this Lee-guy worked at some Tesla tech in area 51? I mean, the guy worked at Microsoft for crying out loud. Is M$’s top brass afraid Lee will pass on their forthcoming ueber rotten “update-or-die” business tactics to Google or what? Maybe he used his “insider information” to obtain a job at M$ as he left Apple as well?
Holy crap – I thought the MDN headline was an MDN headline – not the actual quote! All I have to say is, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer company (ahem.)
Bill – no doubt, huh? China, bigger than Capital One and holding all our T-Bill credit cards…
Oh this is just beutiful!
Steve Balmer and Bill Gates showing their true colors.
And do you know why the Chinese think so lowly of Microsoft?
It’s because the Chinese governement and people have been routinely hacking every darn Win PC they can get a IP address of.
I watch my firewall logs “denying” all those attacks coming from China servers. That must really piss them of, they try for hours to get into my Mac.
Sorry folks, my Mac is off limits!!
no stylist could save that man. he looks happy tho…
This is great! I’d loved to have been in the room when he went off…I’d laughed in his silly face. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy or company for that matter!
It’s good that he got a taste of what he does to others.
M$ is getting ripe for the fall
MacDude, right on. I look at my logs too and see the same sort of thing. How can those Windows douches say that the Mac is secure beacuse there are so few?
The logs say it all!
Billy Boy looks like one would look after dropping the bar of soap in jail showers. Don’t say I didn’t say it.
MDN:
“Advertisement: Windows XP: F—ing start something f—ed, you f—er.”
Aww, shit, I think I peed myself reading that one.
Desperation is a horrible stench, but one Im willing to put up with as it comes from gates/ballmer.
Rest of the world: We’ve been f—ked by Microsoft’
Microsoft Windows: Where do you want to be f—ed today?
The sad truth is regardless of what anyone on this board thinks of Gates or Balmer, Gates could afford to leave the equivalent of all our annual income combined as tip for valet service and never miss it.
It’s not Google Google Google Google…it’s Developers Developers Developers Developers
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MDN: sense
I can’t resist:
Microsoft Windows: Start F—ing Me Up!
Ugly bunch. And I’m not even talking about physical attributes.
We gonna see any Apple/Google suprises mañana?