Month: June 2001

“The rules that companies are allowed to innovate have always been clear. All Microsoft has ever asked for is to be able to work within the rules as they exist.”

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, spinning curiously after a court ruling that affirmed that his company’s most significant innovation in recent years was finding new ways to extend its existing monopoly on PC operating systems, CBS MarketWatch, 29 June 2001

“There will always be crybaby boobies who are unhappy with any company.”

Covad spokeswoman Martha Sessums, on disgruntled DSL customers who can’t get good service from the company …

“I tried first to get Covad but it didn’t work out. I have a cable modem.”

… a group that includes former Covad CEO Robert Knowling, ZDNN, 28 June 2001

“No one cares what the processor is inside. It is really the applications and the software that drives the value for the customer overall.”

Compaq exec Mike Winkler, on his company’s decision to abandon its proprietary Alpha chip in favor of Intel’s Itanium, eWeek, 27 June 2001

“The Times has lost this case and will now undertake the difficult and sad process of removing significant portions from its electronic historical archive.”

New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who, having lost a case in which his paper tried to seize electronic rights to freelancers’ articles, now plans to take someone else’s ball and go home, Wired News, 26 June 2001

“Only two companies will remain: Oracle and SAP of Germany. Everyone else will vanish.”

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, on his hopes of establishing a high-priced software duopoly, Financial Times, 21 June 2001