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Another Microsoft Exec Joins Google
SirClicksalot writes "CNN is reporting that Vic Gundotra, a 15-year veteran general manager at Microsoft, has left the company to join Google. Gundotra worked at Microsoft as general manager for platform evangelism to get software developers to use Microsoft's software and online offerings. The function he will perform at Google is not yet known, but he will need to wait one year before starting his new job because of a non-compete clause in his contract."
the sound a chair being thrown?
"We are uncertain what precise role he will play when he begins working for Google, but he has a broad range of skills and experience which we believe will be valuable to Google," Google spokesman Steve Langdon said in an e-mail statement.
Soo... the guy is going to take a year long vacation and then Google might know what job they're giving him?
Either Google is lying or they're poaching MS execs just to be dicks.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
You get modded a troll when you correct your own post.
More people leaving MS and oining Google means more google greatness :)
Unless of course Microsoft's plan all along was to slowly replace all Google employees with former Microsoft ones. And when the code word is leaked they'll all revolt and start a hostile takeover by Microsoft.
Of course the plan could back fire after the MS employees have their cold hearts melted by Google's love in some sort of 80's carebare-ish type of montage at the last moment.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I mean, are there more executives leaving MS because they don't have a chair to sit on? It can get hard on the feet.
The Fine Summary sayeth:
That drives me insane. I had an employer once who tried to "get" me regarding a non-compete agreement, to wit he accused me of going after his customers. The problem was that no one could be excluded from that group -- he believed everyone on the planet was his customer. That's what I see when I read this. Google does not make operating systems or desktop software, they are a freakin' search company, and MS is not a search company. Yet MS identifies them as a competitor, just like they identify every company in existence as their competitor.
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
Company policy all of a sudden not allowing him to be evil must be quite a thing to adapt to after Microsoft.
Not a bad deal. I'm sure Google will end up paying him for the 1 year vacation.
It really shouldn't be that way. If a company can stick a no-compete on you, then it is they that should have to pay you during the period that you cannot work in your profession. And if you do not have a job at the end of that period, they still should pay you up to two times the length of the clause.
So if you work for a company, and have a 1 year no compete, they might have to pay you up to two years. The US and Canada being at will employment should work both ways equally.
No, no. "fsck" is a *nix command. Ballmer wouldn't say that.
Corrected quote:
No, you won't need to move, 'cause I'm going to chkdsking KILL YOU NOW!
Chairman Mao's mordant quip notwithstanding.
No.
Power comes from the perception arising in the brains of others that you've got power.
Even more so, it comes from the perception that you are gaining more of it in the future. It's almost as if the human mind projects the trends outward and tries to jump on the right bandwagon. I experienced this in the 80s and early 90s as people began to abandon other platforms for Windows. There was almost a sense of panic, that if you didn't get in soon enough you would be crushed.
It follows that if the perception starts that you are losing power, you will lose it, and people will think about the consequences of tying themselves to you for too long. Lenin captured an empire pretty with little more than an audacious show of confidence in the face of deflating imperial fortunes.
Microsoft's mind share survived the massive storm of the antitrust suit. But that was easy. But a steady trickle of news of people going over to a competitor with growing mindshare and momentum hurts them far beyond whatever those individuals could posisbly to them working for the competition. In the context of the Vista delays, a trickle of executives jumping ship tends to look the vanguard of the proverbial rats.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
They are quite tricky to enforce if it can be shown that the change in careers was not completely voluntary, however. (Either being let go for reasons beyond the employee's control, he was under duress, constructive dismissal, etc...).
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
No sig for now.
The only problem is that Google's Stargate is connected to Thor's Hammer so that all the Microsoft execs' symbiotes are killed and the hosts are allowed to regain control.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
Maybe it's just me, but I'm not particularly excited about MS Execs being hired by Google. Do we really want Google to turn into another Microsoft?
Please Google, for the love of $diety, please hire execs from reputable companies...
Read: Rabbit Rue - Free serial nove
Google hires MS executives! ... wait a minute?
Seriously, Borland tried to sue MS over this practice of luring all their good people away. Borland could not get anthing done as Microsoft's strategy was to send limo's and free lunches to Borland product managers and offer them lucrative positions at MS with cheap stock option signing bonuses. There products fell behind and Visual Studio took over.
Now the tides have turned.
I think this says alot about Microsoft as well. The people who are attracted to work at MS are hell bent on success and leading changes and being part of something successfull and new. Ms was king in the 90's and led the innovation and set the standards for computers and the future was bright and they were considered the wave of the future.
Today, Google is the new and innovative kid on the block and MS is stagnating. These same kind of people who like to make differences and be powerfull to satisfy their ego's see MS as the legacy company and google as the new innovative one. My, have times changed. This is bad news for Microsoft and morale at the company. They need to focus on something new besides upgrading windows and making yet game console.
So in the 90's MS hires your executives from YOU! Today Google hires MS executives.
http://saveie6.com/
If what we know about their different personalities from public appearances (Geek vs. Monkey Dancer) I'd say that a lot of people in high places are happy to work for the Borg under one Locutus, but not the other. Frankly I see Ballmer as a very rich sociopath, and if were in those circles I wouldn't want to work for him either. Gates would be ok, as a person, I think. But I would be terrified of working for Ballmer, and would jump ship at the nearest opportunity. Money can only go so far in overcoming fear for your life.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear