Author: Matt

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a movie or the Internet. The services go to the same people, in Sunnyvale, Shanghai and Stockholm.”

Former Warner Bros. studio chief Terry Semel, musing alliteratively about his new gig as Yahoo’s chairman and CEO, CBS MarketWatch, 17 April 2001

“In terms of orders, we had a growth rate that was accelerating to negative growth in 35 days.”

Cisco CEO John Chambers, on the post-Newtonian theories of physics that led him to believe his company could keep growing forever, News.com, 17 April 2001

“If you look at class-action lawsuits, you’d be hard pressed to find a company who doesn’t have one. Nike, Oracle, AT&T, you pick the company.”

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, associating his brand with companies that export labor overseas, hire private investigators to dig through trash, and don’t care because they’re the phone company, The Industry Standard, 11 April 2001

“When I came to NBCi, I had a number of job options. The employment contract I entered into with NBCi reflected the level of compensation I would get in alternative jobs.”

NBCi CEO Will Lansing, on his multimillion-dollar compensation package, which includes a $4 million loan that NBC’s ill-fated portal plans to forgive, despite the complete, ignominious collapse of its business, TheStreet.com, 9 April 2001

“We’re hard and fast on being the largest enabler of commerce on the Web. We have chosen to offer adult-oriented content as part of that.”

Yahoo president Jeff Mallett, promising bigger, better action at the portal’s relaunched porn store, News.com, 11 April 2001