This is one of the most interesting articles I've read in a while.
A few observations:
- The similarities between GOOG's IPO strategy and MSFT's IPO strategy surprised me. MSFT did it on their own terms over a decade before GOOG was even founded. I wonder if the GOOG guys referred to how MSFT did it to draft their own strategy. Also, it seems that MSFT and GOOG, (and also FBOOK) all treat going public as a very low priority and not a goal in and of itself but really just something that needs to be done. Almost as a nuisance.
- I admire the fact that Bill Gates granted this type of access to Fortune during the IPO process. I found it quite interesting and instructive. We're so used to CEOs blogging and tweeting about the startup process nowadays but BG was doing it back in the 80's.
the parallels between Google and Microsoft go further in that prior to their own IPO, the Google founders granted an interview to Playboy that was not supposed to be published until after the IPO:
It was published prior to the IPO (because of magazine lead times, etc.) and caused them a lot of problems - they were close to having to cancel the IPO
I am trying to find other IPO quiet period tech interviews to put them all together in a blog post - so if you know of any others, let me know
Only if it's in memory, that one was posted two months ago so the server wouldn't have been able to detect it. However I'm not sure why obtino linked to it as there's no comments on that story.
Well yes, but I don't see how that's relevant in the discussion. The topic hadn't come up and since there was no fission on the other submission mention it doesnt add anything to the potential conversation, not to my mind anyway, perhaps I'm missing a use case.
"Bill Gates the software prodigy". Ha-ha. A PR-fuckup that unfortunately found its way into the minds of journalists who should know better.
In the 80's many books have been written that point out nicely that Microsoft is just a bunch of criminals. They didn't do anything to make our lifes better.
A few observations:
- The similarities between GOOG's IPO strategy and MSFT's IPO strategy surprised me. MSFT did it on their own terms over a decade before GOOG was even founded. I wonder if the GOOG guys referred to how MSFT did it to draft their own strategy. Also, it seems that MSFT and GOOG, (and also FBOOK) all treat going public as a very low priority and not a goal in and of itself but really just something that needs to be done. Almost as a nuisance.
- I admire the fact that Bill Gates granted this type of access to Fortune during the IPO process. I found it quite interesting and instructive. We're so used to CEOs blogging and tweeting about the startup process nowadays but BG was doing it back in the 80's.