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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Monday, September 05, 2005

Court Documents: Microsoft's Ballmer Vowed To 'Kill' Google In Obscenity-Laden, Chair-Throwing Rant

Associated Press:

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 Friday in an increasingly bitter legal battle between the rivals.

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 center that Google plans to open in China. Lee started at Google the day after he resigned from Microsoft.

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------ bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again," the declaration quotes Ballmer. "I'm going to f------ kill Google."

Before joining Google, Schmidt was a top executive at Sun Microsystems Inc. and Novell Inc., a pair of tech companies that Microsoft has previously battled.

In a statement Friday, Ballmer described Lucovsky's recollection as a "gross exaggeration. Mark's decision to leave was disappointing and I urged him strongly to change his mind. But his characterization of that meeting is not accurate."

So, a lot will be made about Ballmer's reaction here, and of course people will compare it to corporate behavior that came out during Microsoft's historic antitrust trial.

I just have one question. So what? Every single Microsoft shareholder should expect--no, demand--that their CEO act in this manner toward all competition, antitrust issues or not. Ballmer should want to kill Google, should do everything in his power to displace that company. If he doesn't feel this way, and as strongly, he's just not doing his job. Yes, he needs to behave legally. But corporations exist to make money, and to destroy the competition, not pussy foot around.

From what I can tell, Ballmer is a great CEO. My only issue is that he denied acting this way. Embrace your competitive spirit, Mr. Ballmer. It's why you're there in the first place.

[ Posted at 11:03 AM | Permalink ]