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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frederick Smart who wrote (12453)	11/22/1998 1:31:00 PM
From: rudedog	Respond to of 74651

Well, you answered my question about who you work for. I still think you're a suit, but hey, anyone who sings in a barbershop quartet can't be all bad... Music to my ears rudedog!! I'm probably the 'fifth note' generated by the harmonics in your thinking - metaphorically speaking, of course. Go to my website - did so, interesting and well done. Gates & Co. is an exercise in "taking energy" Have you ever worked with Gates, or any of his senior staff? I have, going back more than 14 years. The one thing I can say with certainty is that I got a lot more out of every interaction I had with Gates, Maritz, or Ballmer than I ever put in - especially in terms of energy. Sometimes those meetings generated so many new ideas and options for me that I was still ticking them off weeks later. Especially in the early days, Bill was just throwing off ideas, many of which had nothing to do with Microsoft or his personal interests. People who just happened to be standing around and picked up one of those thoughts sometimes had their whole lives changed. Along with almost everyone who was involved with MSFT in the early 80's, I have not had nearly as much interaction with those people in the last few years as I had previously, but my impression is that the guys at the top have not changed very much, for better or for worse. I think you would be surprised at how similar their thinking is to yours - it's just a lot harder to make those ideas happen when you have the inertia of products in the market and a multi-billion-dollar business to contend with. I will say again that I do not agree with many of MSFT's business practices, but I also don't think those are reflective of the core culture of the company. They are almost exclusively the work of Joachim Kempin and the OEM team. If he gets his just desserts as a result of the DOJ trial, I for one will not be too disappointed.