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Paul Allen Rips Bill Gates In Autobiography

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the your-mother-dresses-you-funny dept.

itwbennett writes "Bill Gates was guilty of 'mercenary opportunism' when he schemed with Steve Ballmer to dilute Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's equity in the company while Allen was recovering from Hodgkin's disease, according to Allen. In his upcoming autobiography, 'Idea Man,' which is excerpted in Vanity Fair, Allen paints a portrait of Gates as brilliant, focused, driven ... and ruthless. According to Allen, Gates in the early days twice sought larger equity in the company on the grounds that he 'did more.' Allen says he acquiesced each time, both because he understood his partner's reasoning and to avoid major conflict."

17 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Does it surprise anyone... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...That Gates and Ballmer are scheming cut-throats?

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    1. Re:Does it surprise anyone... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Paul Allen has $13 billion. Please excuse me if I find it difficult to feel sorry for him.

    2. Re:Does it surprise anyone... by mwvdlee · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nope.
      It's just nice to hear it confirmed by somebody with first-hand experience.

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    3. Re:Does it surprise anyone... by thsths · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The two good points are made, can we close the discussion now, before it gets ugly?

    4. Re:Does it surprise anyone... by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Oh it wasn't just him, I remember a story about how Jobs fucked Woz out of something like $1500 by saying that the game that Woz wrote that Jobs sold to Atari had only netted $300 (and thus making Woz's half $150) when it actuality it had sold for something like $3000, and this was supposed to be his friend..

      I bet if someone did a full psyche work up on most successful CEOs you'd find that damned near every single one is a sociopath because to reach that level of success and power one has to be willing to fuck EVERYBODY, friends, family, workers, everyone they come in contact with. So is it any surprise that Gates did what probably every other top CEO did and fucked his colleague? Sadly we reward sociopaths when it comes to business.

      Doesn't make him any less of a douche, it just gives him a hell of a lot of company, Jobs, Ellison, I bet every major tech CEO that has reached the billionaires club has a hell of a lot of fucked over friends left in their wake.

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  2. That's how you sell an autobiography by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Saying nice things about people never sold anything. If he said nice things about Gates, would the book even be on Slashdot?

    If you want your autobiographical book, newspaper, magazine, etc. to sell, you have to be at least a little mean.

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    1. Re:That's how you sell an autobiography by Daengbo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Gates was always ruthless, egotistical, and manipulative in his dealings with others -- possibly even sociopathic. His recent change is just Robber Baron Guilt playing itself out like it always does. No one wants to go down in history the way he was going to go. You've got to distract the public, donchaknow?

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    2. Re:That's how you sell an autobiography by timeOday · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Telling the truth isn't mean, and you don't get to be the richest guy in the world by sharing. You get there with a combination of perfect luck, extreme talent and motivation, and by using every trick in the book. If you didn't, somebody else who did would be #1.

    3. Re:That's how you sell an autobiography by rolfwind · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, yeah, a scandalous book might sell more, but does Paul Allen really need the money?

    4. Re:That's how you sell an autobiography by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If he truly would be a sociopath, he wouldn't feel guilt.

    5. Re:That's how you sell an autobiography by The+End+Of+Days · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Your reasoning fails a basic sniff test; The public at large has nothing like your nerdrage-based antipathy towards Bill Gates.

  3. Re:He understood? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wonder why...

    He's clearly still bitter about being pushed out of MS around the time he had the cancer...

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  4. Paul Allen "rips" Bill Gates? by RR · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Calling Bill Gates ruthless and greedy, this is controversial? It seems rather a compliment compared with what other labels you could legitimately attach to him.

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  5. tiniest violin by rritterson · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yep, you got so screwed that you only became a billionaire instead of the richest person on earth. If only we could all be so fortunate.

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  6. Uh, well, it's TRUE... by Dahamma · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Paul Allen is complaining because Bill Gates wanted more equity since he "did more"? Paul Allen, for a long time the 2nd richest man in the world who pretty much stopped working at Microsoft in the early 80's and instead sunk a ton of money into failed tech companies and professional sports teams, was upset that Bill thought he DID MORE??

    This guy's only smart business decision of his life was to partner with Bill Gates, and after that point his greatest business claim to fame is to lose more money on new ventures than anyone in history (Vulcan might as well be running their corporate furnaces on $100 bills...)

  7. Re:What about DONKEY.BAS? by eples · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, that, and the BASIC interpreter itself. Not a small thing.

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  8. Re:Robber Baron Guilt by dunezone · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Knowing that Warren Buffet pledged to give billions to that charity (while refusing to put his own children in his will) is not good news for her..

    Thats because Warren Buffet doesn't like the idea of transferring wealth from one generation to the next. Warren Buffet wants his children to be independent from him and make it on their own. Ever hear of those stories where the children of the highly succesful tend to be screw ups? Because they were handed everything and never understood the idea of making it on their own. Additionally, they weren't written out of his will, they just wont receive a large amount of wealth, same thing is happening with Bill Gates children.