Paul Allen Rips Bill Gates In Autobiography 249
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."
Does it surprise anyone... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's how you sell an autobiography (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.
Re:That's how you sell an autobiography (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?
Re:That's how you sell an autobiography (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:He understood? (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder why...
He's clearly still bitter about being pushed out of MS around the time he had the cancer...
Paul Allen "rips" Bill Gates? (Score:2, Insightful)
tiniest violin (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.
Re:That's how you sell an autobiography (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, yeah, a scandalous book might sell more, but does Paul Allen really need the money?
Uh, well, it's TRUE... (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...)
Re:Does it surprise anyone... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Does it surprise anyone... (Score:4, Insightful)
Nope.
It's just nice to hear it confirmed by somebody with first-hand experience.
Re:That's how you sell an autobiography (Score:2, Insightful)
If he truly would be a sociopath, he wouldn't feel guilt.
Re:Does it surprise anyone... (Score:5, Insightful)
The two good points are made, can we close the discussion now, before it gets ugly?
Re:That's how you sell an autobiography (Score:2, Insightful)
Your reasoning fails a basic sniff test; The public at large has nothing like your nerdrage-based antipathy towards Bill Gates.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What about DONKEY.BAS? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Robber Baron Guilt (Score:4, 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.