Dennis: I think that you may be assuming that Jobs engineered this as a public event. I see it differently. I think it slipped through his fingers, that he minimized the possibility that this would happen, that he was told but dismissed it, maybe got too busy and forgot it, maybe underestimated what Campbell would do. Maybe he tried to resolve it, offered a deal that Campbell rejected, and then lost his temper and walked away from the bargaining table so then Campbell announced the termination of Quicken Mac. Then Jobs had to suck up, so he took poblic responsibility for it. It probably WAS his fault but I don't believe that the fault lay with his not telling Campbell the future plans in the consumer market. No, no. Campbell knew those plans because he's on the BOD! Jobs did screw up but didn't tell the world the truth of how. Then he had to scramble to offer a big enough bribe to Campbell and boy, this cost him! What a sweet position Intuit was in, that day!
All this is my reconstruction, of course, but I'm fairly confident in this reconstruction of the events.
Linda |
