Apparently, when a Microsoft employee leaves Redmond for the Google pastures, the MS management team, or at least one in particular, does not react in a pleasant manner.
According to a post filed at John Battelle’s Searchblog (amongst other places), the Dr Kai-Fu Lee hiring is not the only time a Microsoft employee leaving to work for Google has ruffled some feathers around Redmond. Battelle’s post reveals a legal document tied to the Google/Microsoft court battle over Dr Lee called the “Declaration of Mark Lucovsky” was leaked.
In the document, which was acquired from a reliable source, the contents of a discussion Luchovsky, at the time a distinguished Microsoft engineer, had with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer about Luchovsky’s upcoming “defection” to rival Google. Ballmer’s reaction to the news was rather, um, aggressive, for lack of a better word. If you go by what the document said, it is rather apparent Ballmer has no affection whatsoever towards Google, a company some see as Microsoft’s biggest rival. What follows is an edited segment of the document in question:
Prior to joining Google, I set up a meeting on or about November 11, 2004 with Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss my planned departure….At some point in the conversation Mr. Ballmer said: “Just tell me it’s not Google.” I told him it was Google.
At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: “F***ing Eric Schmidt is a f***ing p***y. I’m going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to f***ing kill Google.”
There’s not much that can follow up to such a definitive statement; however, it should be noted that Ballmer denies having such a Richard Pryor-esqe reaction to Luchovsky’s news.
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for murdok. Visit murdok for the latest search news.
