Quiz time. Everybody put away your books and notes. Who, in the pages of the New Yorker magazine, recently said of Bill Gates, “I think he has a Napoleonic concept of himself and his company, an arrogance that derives from power and unalloyed success, with no leavening hard experience, no reverses …” Then, went on to say of Microsoft executives: “They dont act like grown-ups!” And, finished up by saying that Microsofts lead attorney, William Neukom, is “not very smart, or at least I dont think he has any subtlety.”
Is your answer: a) Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, resident Sm@rt Partner Cyber Cynic; b) Mary Jo Foley, ZDNets best and nastiest Microsoft reporter; or c) Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. The answer is … drumroll, please … C!
Jackson, in the past, has had a reputation for shooting from the hip in public, but you have to wonder whos getting shot here: Microsoft, or Jackson in his foot?
Microsoft has made no bones about arguing that Jacksons decision to break up the software giant is based more on his own bias than the law, and the quoted comments only serve to help Redmonds case.