A tough-talking Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, talked to a couple hundred Stanford business school students yesterday, lobbing a few firebombs in Google's direction.
On Google's success: "Google built one very good business. They only have one thing they do. Everything else is sort of cute." By contrast, he called Microsoft a two-trick pony -- desktop software and server software -- that is trying to become a four-trick pony by dominating first online, then consumer electronics.
On Google's growth:
"They're trying to double in a year. That's insane. It doesn't mean they won't do it well."
On Google's PhDs:
"I don't know anybody has proven that a random collection of people doing their own thing actually creates value."
For all the tough talk, though, Ballmer knows he's up against a formidable enemy, including Google as well as new open-source software solutions: "If somebody came to you and said you have a new competitor that has no price and has no cost structure you might stay up a night or two on that one."
