James Harding's view from the valley
As Microsoft keeps its whiter than white reputation, Geek gods roam the Valley and it's goodbye Mr Chip.
Do you remember when the UK authorities found British Airways guiltythe Valley and it's goodbye Mr Chip. of using dodgy business practices to guarantee its sales? The government came down on it like a ton of bricks. The media and public agreed, chastising the company for wrong-doing and unfair behaviour. BA was forced into an embarrassing apology to the competitor it harmed, Virgin Atlantic.
In a similar move last week, the US authorities found Microsoft guilty of using dodgy business practices to guarantee its sales. The government came down on it like a ton of bricks. But that's where the similarity ends.
The media and public have not chastised Microsoft - many have backed its weak arguments. Nor has Microsoft been forced into an embarrassing apology to the competitor it harmed, Netscape.
Microsoft's audacity in stating publicly that the Department of Justice is wrong is astonishing. The courts are the only authority the US begrudgingly listens to, so Microsoft has vowed to fight the government in court. Its supporters believe it is looking after consumers by forcing them to have Explorer on their desktops. Microsoft is becoming a law unto itself.
The authority is there to look after the interests of fair business, like a rugby referee. Every time Microsoft undermines the DoJ in public it should get a ten yard penalty - say, another $10 million. That should shut it up.
Chipping forecast
Chip Lacy, the former chief executive of Ingram Micro who moved to Micro Warehouse, has left (PC Dealer, 29 October). It seems the giant catalogue reseller had the worst of the New York Stock Exchange crash - on the same day that the Dow Jones index lost more than 500 points and all technology stocks were down by around 15 per cent anyway, it announced diabolical results and Lacy left after a row with the board. Half the company's paper value was wiped out in one day. Ouch.
Peter Godfrey, chairman and founder of Micro Warehouse, said Lacy disagreed with the board over the future direction of the company. This is exactly what happened to Lacy with the Ingram family. To disagree once is human, but twice is worrying, especially as Lacy has said in the past that Micro Warehouse will be his last job.
The strange thing is that Godfrey said he was grateful to Lacy for his work as he let him go. That's strange, but it proves Lacy has the ability to run businesses well and the spirit to cross anyone, including the company owners.
For the sake of interesting business, let's hope that Chip doesn't retire, but turns up at another company - somewhere high-profile, with passionate and strong people on board. Apple, maybe.
Stock tactics
In the recent rollercoaster of the Wall Street stock flotations, investors kept calm even when technology shares were hit hardest. They are so confident that computer companies are going to make them pots of cash that a full-blown crash is not going to deter them.
Valley venture capitalists have admitted the only effect a crash would have might be to delay the flotation of their startups. With 67,000 millionaires in Silicon Valley already, who can argue?
It's all Geek to me
Hewlett Packard has announced the winners of its Geek For A Year competition.
The first prize is unlimited visits from the The Geek Squad for a year.
The Geek Squad is a support Var which describes itself as a rapid-response technical support unit. It sounds like the computer SAS.
Back to the point. HP was offering a lot of kit and a year of Geek support for the worst small business horror story.
One winner said her kid put a chocolate disk in the floppy drive and broke it. Another said a ceiling fan blade fell on his PC and sliced a chink out of the cabinet. Horror? I was more scared at the last HP presentation about world domination.
HP could have heard the horror of my friend's dissertation - he selected all of the final draft to change the font for printing, accidentally pressed Delete and then panicked, saving it. Saving the empty version, that is.
He lost more than two weeks' work. Everyone called him a geek, too, but for different reasons.
James Harding is US Editor of VNU Newswire, based in San Francisco. He can be reached at [email protected] or on 00 1 415 306 0879.