Microsoft settles with Google over executive hire

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Your perspective does not mesh with released documents.

From: [url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1344271,curpg-2.cms]Microsoft inks deal with ex-employee[/url] Saturday, Dec 24 The Economic Times

Court documents released in September said that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, in an obscenity-laced tirade over another former employee?s having been hired away by Google, threw a chair and vowed to ?kill? Google. Ballmer has called the characterisation of his response a ?gross exaggeration.?

Also last fall, Microsoft released an internal e-mail from a Google executive that suggested the search-engine company pursue Lee, then still a Microsoft executive, ?like wolves?. Microsoft had offered to settle in September, hours after a Washington state judge ruled that Lee could do limited work for Google pending a full trial. That trial was set for next month.

This indicates that Microsoft backed down and Lee was not the first one to defect to Google (competition to MSN).

From: [url=http://www.forbes.com/2005/12/23/gates-microsoft-google-cx_cn_1223autofacescan02.html]Gates' Microsoft And Google Settle Employee Row [/url] 12.23.05, 7:09 AM ET Forbes

Things got fresh in September when documents presented in the legal tussle told of Microsoft's Chief Executive Steve Ballmer vowing to "kill" Google in an obscenity-laden tirade in November last year. A Microsoft engineer claimed Ballmer picked up his chair and hurled it across his office, before saying of Google's CEO Eric Schmidt: "I'm going to bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to kill Google." A couple of those verbs were apparently preceded by an obscene gerund--use your imagination. Then Lee testified that being hollered and sworn at by the normally phlegmatic Bill Gates was the nadir of his career before he defected to rival Google. No chair abuse this time, but Lee claimed the billionaire yelled at him and said that the company had been done over by the Chinese people and its government--except Gates used an obscene past participle in place of "done over".

This shows that there is a fair amount of animosity, perghaps due to others leaving for Google and finally, as this case has shown, Microsft could make an example to show others at Microsoft (read: employees) that Mircosoft took a dim view of people jumping to Google (though ythey can leave to join other companies or start their own).

Your view of the case does not mesh with what has been revealed in either news reports or court documents, testimony and transcripts.

Posted by: B.O.F.H.   Posted on: 12/23/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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