Tit For Tat zdnet.com
Esteemed ilk sister Mary Jo Foley comments on rounding up the usual suspects.
Only a company as big and powerful-and, dare I say, as monopolistic-as Microsoft could manage to amass overnight the likes of Eckhard Pfeiffer, Lew Platt and Andy Grove. And when I say overnight, I'm not kidding.
As of last Thursday, Microsoft was having trouble corralling the troops. Despite the most persuasive pitches of its top honchos, the company could not produce a single name of a major computer or software vendor who would second publicly Microsoft's hands-off-Windows 98 call. I take that back: The Microsoft marketing machine did give us Sony's name. But the Sony guy (who, after inquiring in a panic, "Did Justice file?") declined to comment in any way, shape or form on Sony's take on the matter.
It's not surprising to see Microsoft's staunchest allies, like Dell, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and Vanstar tripping over each other to bolster Microsoft's browser-bundling arguments. What would be surprising is if anyone is bamboozled by Microsoft's attempts to make this "groundswell" of public support look genuine.
Andy Grove probably got a personal call from Bill, but the poor OEMs were no doubt stuck dealing with old Joachim Kempin again.
Cheers, Dan. |
