“Google proved to be the final straw that broke Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s back,” Yi-Wyn Yen reports for Fortune.
“After weeks of threatening Yahoo that the software giant would attempt a hostile takeover if the company refused its bid, Ballmer explained Saturday why he decided to withdraw his offer for the Internet portal. He was walking away because of his archrival Google,” Yen reports,
“Yahoo would become ‘undesirable’ if it formed an alliance with Google, Ballmer said in a statement. Last month, Yahoo had outsourced some of its search advertising results to Google in a two-week trial. The Internet portal said it was considering a long-term partnership with Google and that a deal could be announced as early as next week, a source familiar with the matter said,” Yen reports.
Full article here.
Excerpts from a BusinessWeek interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, October 12, 2004:
Steve Jobs: Apple had a monopoly on the graphical user interface for almost 10 years. That’s a long time. And how are monopolies lost? Think about it. Some very good product people invent some very good products, and the company achieves a monopoly. But after that, the product people aren’t the ones that drive the company forward anymore. It’s the marketing guys or the ones who expand the business into Latin America or whatever. Because what’s the point of focusing on making the product even better when the only company you can take business from is yourself? So a different group of people start to move up. And who usually ends up running the show? The sales guy… Then one day, the monopoly expires for whatever reason. But by then the best product people have left, or they’re no longer listened to. And so the company goes through this tumultuous time, and it either survives or it doesn’t.
BusinessWeek: Is this common in the industry?
Steve Jobs: Look at Microsoft — who’s running Microsoft?
BusinessWeek: Steve Ballmer.
Steve Jobs: Right, the sales guy. Case closed.
Source: The Seed of Apple’s Innovation
Hopefully M$’s missleaded Billyfans will now start to understand that M$ “supreme power over all” is now just OVER… Asta la Vista poor internet terrorist and proud monopolist!
@oh no my shorts
At least with GW Bush USA gained to make another crazy war and managed to pile up hatred instead of the friendship of the world! If you think Al Gore is so bad… He yet impossibly could have done worse!
How strong is Ballmers position as CEO in M$? ..’cause this Yahoo thing made him look really silly.
Here is a novel idea: how about hireing Jobs as CEO in M$?
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I thank Steve Ballmer for prolonging my life. Every time I think about him, I laugh.
TheConfused1:
You won’t follow the exact advice that you gave to “oh no my shorts”. You are pathetic.
Too bad. If the hubris afflicted Ballmer went through with his threats, Microsoft would have been severely damaged. Two crappy search engines to go against Google would have been impossible to make work.
What do you bet that if a Democrat is elected (ever seena surer thing?), then for the next four years, Microsoft has a very easy ride
Remember, MS only landed the DNC gig. MS now has to deliver.
Things might not be so cozy when MS’s crapware blue-screens at prime-time, both embarrassing the Dems on a national stage & forcing them to scramble a Plan B.
Then again, perhaps that’s the intention. From the news link:
The software giant is charged with bringing technologies and applications to the Democratic National Convention for delegates, media and members of the public to track items such as various votes during the event.
Gotta wonder if choosing MS is some way of making sure we don’t see the votes being cast.
I guess Bill Gates is in some ways much better than balmer
@ All who have decided to make this a political topic
I urge you to read a little from Samuel Johnson
“It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”
After reading several posts, many of the doubts I had have been removed.
Let’s all thank are luck stars that this mad man didn’t get Yahoo!
What did Bill Gates think about the Microsoft-Yahoo merger? Maybe Gates thought enough is enough, and told Ballmer to forget it?
@Good: I had the same issue.
What’s “Yahoo!”?
M$ = what is wrong with unbridled capitalism.
M$ is self-destructing thanks to Ballsy.
I’m trying to figure this out;
WHY did Microsoft want to own Yahoo?
– What would that have done for MS?
Did Microsoft see how Apple and Google are cozy, and think, “Gee, what’s better than being being COZY with a search engine? Oh, OWNING one! We’ll be better than Apple by BUYING a search engine, improving it in the typical MS way, and filling the search engine with proprietary MS features and DRM-friendly code!”
Was that it?
Okay, so then this: “Yahoo would become ‘undesirable’ if it formed an alliance with Google’, Ballmer said …”
But, if MS OWNED Yahoo, wouldn’t Yahoo do what its owners want, and not ally with Google if MS thought it was a bad idea?
Like others have posted, I think there’s more to Ballmer’s re-decision. But I’m mystified as to the whole premise of this story.
Enlightenment, anyone?
Bueller?
That Jobs interview is stupid. First he asks, “And how are monopolies lost?” and later he says, “Then one day, the monopoly expires for whatever reason.” He never answered his own question!
Also note that Jobs *IS* the sales guy! The Woz was the product person. Steve Jobs is neither a hardware engineer nor a software engineer. He’s the guy who goes on stage or on TV and sells Apple.
Enlightenment, anyone?
Yes. Is anybody here monitoring the regular MS boards? What’s the buzz, the REAL story behind this?
MS doesn’t give up on anything this easily.
He’s the guy who goes on stage or on TV and sells Apple.
Nice try.
Study Jobs sometime. He’s both a product engineer and salesman; he’s actively involved in designing the products he has to sell. Jobs has an unmatched capacity of spotting winning ideas, and the ability to drive top-notch people into perfecting those ideas. His on-stage sell is a nice bonus.
Ballmer, OTOH, is the polar opposite of Jobs. He’d be an unemployed, lousy used car salesman today (complete with chicken suit) if it weren’t for a fateful dorm room assignment.
@MizuInOz
yeah but Runbox is $50. per year, i would expect privacy.
@Jobs’s folly,
Uh, actually, Woz was the technology person. Jobs was into making products. That’s where they had their differences.
Jobs never held a sales position. And he’s never hocked products on TV. Delivering keynotes is standard practice for CEOs and is not the same thing as sales. Making great deals to buy and sell for your company is standard practice for CEOs and is not the same thing as sales.
Ballmer, on the other hand, held administration, sales and marketing positions at Microsoft. That IS the same thing as sales. Now, he happens to be CEO. But that’s another story.
Learn business.
So Ballmer is the “sales person”, does he know anything about programming or OS’s?
From Afib to TheConfused1:
“You won’t follow the exact advice that you gave to “oh no my shorts”. You are pathetic.”
Pot meet kettle.
I just love those Steve Jobs quotes – they are so accurate.
He amazes me everytime – he seems to have a crystal ball for a brain.
He truly is one hell of a genius!
Ballmer is a serial bungler – like Gordon Brown, the replacement for Tony Blair.
Promoting the deputy instead of getting in fresh blood doesn’t always go the way you hope.
I say… 3 Cheers for Jerry Yang!
Ballmer’s reign has coincided with the other big dunderhead, GWB. Hopefully David Kowalski will do another version of “It’s A Blunderful Life” starring Steve Ballmer, dealing with how the evolution of computing would have been different without Ballmer.
http://www.davidkowalski.com/