Month: October 2000

“It’s not really about whether the economics are there or not. It’s about whether you have something good enough that people will want to watch it.”

Heavy.com CEO Simon Assad, displaying a lightweight understanding of his Web animation firm’s plans to make money, The New York Times, 30 October 2000

“I was given the brush-off at first, told to e-mail the story. Aside from the fact that I didn’t have e-mail at the time, I was not sending the story off into ether.”

Freelance writer Dan Forbes, on his technophobic, thoroughly Luddite pitch of a drug-control payola scandal to Salon.com …

“A friend of mine says that when they write the history of the Internet as a medium this story will be mentioned. How many real heavy-duty scoops have there been on the Internet prior to this?”

… and Forbes again, awakening to the Internet’s way new journalism about five years too late, High Times, December 2000 (issue date)

“I can … assure you that we know that there has been no compromise of the integrity of the source codes, that it has not been tampered with in any way.”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, reassuring customers that in the wake of a hack attack, Microsoft’s integrity remains as compromised as ever, The Washington Post, 27 October 2000

“If you’re an advertising-driven dot-com model, forget about it.”

CMGI CEO David Wetherell, writing off the majority of his Internet holding company’s businesses — a step investors have already taken, by sending the dot-conglomerate’s shares down 85% this year, eWeek, 26 October 2000

“It seems to be a lot of fun to write that this [breakup] is a repudiation of our strategy. I find that not only wrong, but offensive.”

AT&T CEO Mike Armstrong, insisting that his company’s impending breakup into four parts is inspired by grand strategy, not stock price-driven desperation, News.com, 25 October 2000