“There really isn’t much value in free.”
Microsoft executive Doug Miller — who works for a company that provides free email, a free browser, and six months of free Internet access — on the value of Linux, Wired News, 31 January 2001
IF ALL YOU’VE GOT IS A HAMMER, YOUR PROFIT MARGINS GET NAILED
“We’ll ferociously manage the products we carry so that we sell only products that are profitable. The thirty-pound box of nails isn’t long for our world.”
Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, in a company memo about plans to make money selling things by selling things that make money, The Wall Street Journal, 2 February 2001
AND THAT HORN YOU HEAR IS THE CLUE TRAIN A-COMIN’
“We’re very focused on profitability and that’s the light at the end of the tunnel for us.”
Epinions CEO Nirav Tolia, on the company’s sudden discovery that it didn’t need 24 of its 88 employees, News.com, 30 January 2001
BUT WILL YOU PAY ME ROYALTIES IN THE MORNING?
“As artists we have always been screwed by the music majors. Napster and the file sharers are screwing us all over again. To be screwed from two different directions simultaneously, that’s very worrying.”
Singer Peter Gabriel, on feeling that the musical three-way proposed by Bertelsmann and Napster is more than a little bit nonconsensual, The Independent, 30 January 2001
EITHER THAT, OR THEY FOUND OUT “WISH UPON A STAR” WASN’T AN EFFECTIVE BUSINESS STRATEGY
“The advertising community has abandoned the Internet.”
Disney chairman Michael Eisner, who appears to be taking poor ad sales at his company’s Go.com portal a bit personally, FT.com, 28 January 2001
Ditherati: See the Digerati Dither, Daily 
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