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Is Steve Ballmer the Deng Xiaoping of Microsoft?Posted by Dror Poleg on Monday, July 31, 2006 at 5:16 PM
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called on the phantom of Mao Zedong while trying to convince the Wall Street Journal that the Redmond giant will flourish without Bill Gates at the helm: “There have been many companies who lost their greatness post their founders. There have been many companies who went on to greater greatness after their founders.... When did China get great? China didn't get great under Mao Zedong. China got great under -- in the recent years -- probably got great under Deng Xiaoping.” Now, if Gates is Mao and Ballmer is Deng, does that make Larry Page Chen Shuibian? Thanks to ValleyWag, Gawker Media's Silicon Valley Gossip Rag, for spotting this one. |
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Comments on Is Steve Ballmer the Deng Xiaoping of Microsoft?
Actually, it seems more likely that Ballmer is Zhou Enlai to Gates' Mao and that Ray Ozzie, formerly an exile at IBM and now welcomed into the fold, is Deng Xiaoping. However it's equally likely that Ozzie is merely Hua Guofeng and Deng Xiaoping is a player to be named later.
As for Larry Page, he is distinctly Chiang Kai-shek.