A BILLION HERE, A BILLION THERE

“If I had a dollar for every time …”

Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang, momentarily forgetting that he does, speaking at the Web 2.0 conference, 7 October 2004

BUT I WAS JUST READING OUR MARKETING COLLATERAL

“The statements were promotional, not true, absolutely not true.”

Ousted PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway, on claiming Oracle’s takeover effort wasn’t hurting his company’s sales, The Age, 6 October 2004

DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT VERY RECENT HISTORY

“Microsoft has had competitors in the past. It’s a good thing we have museums to document this stuff.”

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, recalling the misty, fading days of WordPerfect, Novell, and Netscape, Forbes.com, 4 October 2004

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO TODAY, BESIDES THE APPLE STORE?

“There is no way that you can get there with Apple. The critical mass has to come from the PC, or a next-generation video device.”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, on rebooting the living room, Silicon.com, 4 October 2004

IT’S A HUG, NOT A FEATURE

“We have not blown off IE at all. We care deeply about this market. It’s supercritical.”

Microsoft executive Michael Wallent, whose team cares so deeply about Internet Explorer it hasn’t released a new version in three years, News.com, 30 September 2004