Taking Microsoft Into the Cloud | How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft | 5
Business Movers
Wondery
4.7 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2022
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Author David Bank delves deeper into the antitrust trial that sent Bill Gates falling from grace and nearly broke Microsoft apart.
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Transcript
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| 0:31.0 | It's March 1997 in Redmond, Washington. |
| 0:36.0 | Inside building 27 of Microsoft's headquarters, a group of employees gather inside a crowded conference room. |
| 0:43.0 | Among them is Ben Slivka. As he walks in, he strides toward the front of the room and prepares a PowerPoint presentation about the programming language Java. |
| 0:53.0 | Ben has been part of a team trying to use Java to run Microsoft's products on any kind of operating system, not just Microsoft Windows. |
| 1:01.0 | To Ben and his team, the effort is necessary to compete with other software companies making similar moves to become platform agnostic. |
| 1:08.0 | Today he's here to present his team's progress. |
| 1:11.0 | As the room fills up, Microsoft's CEO Bill Gates motions for Ben to begin. |
| 1:16.0 | All right, great. Thanks, Bill. Hello, everyone. If we're all ready, I'll go ahead and get started. |
| 1:21.0 | Ben waits as the room grows silent. Then he clicks up his first slide. |
| 1:26.0 | As Ben begins his presentation, he glances over at Bill, who Ben knows is skeptical of his work. |
| 1:32.0 | Bill doesn't see the point of making Microsoft's products agnostic. He wants people to use Microsoft products on Microsoft's operating system. |
| 1:40.0 | But Ben disagrees. He knows customers want freedom to run software on whatever operating system they like. |
| 1:46.0 | And today, Ben hopes he might finally be able to change Bill's mind. |
| 1:50.0 | But just as Ben moves on to the next slide, Bill interrupts him. There's nothing about that slide I liked, Ben. |
| 1:56.0 | Immediately, Ben feels his palms grow sweaty. For a moment, he's at a loss for words. |
| 2:01.0 | Ben tries to get back on track, but Bill won't let him. |
| 2:05.0 | And what is going on here? What are you doing? I'm not sure I know what you mean, Bill. What about the slide bothers you? |
| 2:11.0 | Though Ben asks the question, he already knows the answer. He hasn't incorporated windows into his presentation. |
| 2:17.0 | And there's not a single mention of windows on that slide. Not one. That's the problem for me. |
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