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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."

7 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Was that... by bcat24 · · Score: 5, Funny

    the sound a chair being thrown?

    1. Re:Was that... by OmegaBlac · · Score: 5, Funny

      Could also be the sound of hundreds of thousands of Slashdot geeks rushing to quickly type out a housand variations (there will be dupes of course) of the "Ballmer Tossing Chairs" jokes. Each starting with "And in Redmond...".

  2. Re:Great News by vertinox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
  3. Non-compete? Ugh. by Wylfing · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Fine Summary sayeth:

    he will need to wait one year before starting his new job because of a non-compete clause in his contract

    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.
  4. Re:the announcement by iced_773 · · Score: 5, Funny


    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!

  5. Power doesn't come out of the barrel of a gun by hey! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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  6. platform evangelism? by alexandreracine · · Score: 5, Funny
    Gundotra worked at Microsoft as general manager for platform evangelism...
    What's that? Now you have to pray for your Microsoft software to work correcly?
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