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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."

6 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 thsths · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    3. 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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