Saturday, February 02, 2008

Machinist: Tech Blog, Tech News, Technology Articles - Salon:

Early this morning Microsoft held a press call to explain its unsurprising but nevertheless staggering $44 billion takeover bid for Yahoo. Bill Gates was not on the line.

CEO Steve Ballmer and Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, held forth on the brilliance of their plan, while Gates, the co-founder and ruthless tactician who made Microsoft the most efficient cash-generation machine this side of the U.S. Mint, was likely off somewhere trying to set right the wrongs of capitalism.

So you've got to wonder: What would Bill do? Was this Bill's idea? Did he have to be persuaded? Obviously he's not opposed to it (though Gates plans to leave Microsoft in July, he will remain the chairman of its board). But does this move jibe with Gates' early-'90s pugilism, with the take-no-prisoners élan of the Microsoft that everyone once feared? Is it the move of a company getting its mojo back?

Or is this the midlife crisis of a softer, less nimble firm, a company that now has more money than smarts, coasting on last generation's success -- a company desperate to show the world that it still kind of matters?

3:47 PM