Bhatia quits Microsoft for Net start-up [details]
Bala Murali Krishna
NEW YORK 3 APRIL
HOTMAIL co-founder Sabeer Bhatia, who sold his company to Microsoft 15 months ago, has quit the world's largest software company to head a possible Internet startup.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Bhatia, 30, had “joined the ranks of those who've left the software behemoth to work on Internet startups.”
Mr Bhatia was the general manager of strategic development at Microsoft Network (MSN) and had helped the organisation make deals with Internet companies in the Silicon Valley. Mr Bhatia said he left Microsoft because he didn't believe it was fair to be thinking about his next company while working at Microsoft. Also, he wanted a return to “the rush of being part of a startup,” Mr Bhatia added.
Mr Bhatia and his friends from Stanford University are working on a plan for an e-commerce company, it said, and quoted Mr Bhatia as saying, “There's a lot of potential in the e-commerce space. I've got a rough idea.” The report, however, said, Mr Bhatia had no “firm idea of a company,” but only a “small office in Fremont (California) and a scratch pad.”
Microsoft and Mr Bhatia parted on amicable terms, the report said. “People go elsewhere and we hate to see that, but we try very hard to keep people challenged and keep them here,” a Microsoft spokesman said.
Mr Bhatia, a graduate of Stanfford University and a former Apple executive, and Jack Smit, a colleague at Apple, founded Hotmail in 1995, offering Internet users free e-mail services. Moreover, because it was Web-based, it enabled users to access personal e-mails from the office, cutting through security firewalls or while travelling.
On the last day of 1997, Hotmail agreed to be acquired by Microsoft at an estimated price of $400 m. Mr Bhatia was reported to have received about $80 m in Microsoft stock which has grown considerably since then. When Hotmail was sold, it had close to 10m members. It now has an active membership of over 30m and is by far the biggest e-mail service in the world, ahead of America Online, which has over 14 m members. — IANS
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