Reflections on My Career at Microsoft
&gt;The Microsoft of the 2000s, under Steve Ballmer, was almost exactly the opposite (of gates).<p>&gt;Bruised and battered by the consent decree handed down by the DoJ for the very same ambition that brought it to dominance, Ballmer’s Microsoft was sales-forward and CAUTIOUS.<p>&gt;It was... nervously clutching its pearls at the approach of Google in its rearview mirror<p>People bash Steve Ballmer for missing Search, Social Networking, Smart phones, Tablets and one other thing. They claim he had his head far up his rear end to see the competiton. He&#x27;s called a buffoon and other names but ignore the fact that...<p>Microsoft was Caged. Had it&#x27;s wings clipped. Had a huge target on its back. In case you did&#x27;t know, any complaint by say Google in its early days and Microsoft would have been broken up!<p>This is the real reason behind&#x27;s Ballmer&#x27;s failure.<p>Gates hated politics, kept Washington at arms length and that cost them. In fact, if Gates had lobbied just a little bit, there would have been no case at all.<p>And that&#x27;s why Google&#x27;s lobbying like crazy cos it&#x27;s life actually depends on it.