Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft [Hardcover]

David Bank (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 13, 2001

The year is 1997, and despite the machinations of its rivals, Microsoft is master of the digital universe and the darling of corporate America. Windows and Office generate staggering profits, the company's share price is stratospheric, and Bill Gates is the preeminent icon of the information age. No outsider could guess what Gates knew -- that the most powerful threat to Microsoft's prized Windows platform came not from Sun or Netscape or AOL or even from the U.S. Department of Justice, but from within the company's own ranks.

"Breaking Windows" tells the story of the battle for the soul of Microsoft that raged inside the company from 1997 to 2000 and continues to reverberate today. Drawing on hundreds of e-mails among Microsoft executives, trial testimony, and exclusive interviews with Gates and his chief lieutenants, "Wall Street Journal" reporter David Bank reveals the bitter maneuvering between what he calls Microsoft's "Windows hawks" and its "Internet doves." On one side were the fierce defenders of the hegemony of Windows, on the other those who championed a new way of doing business based on the Internet's "open standards." The reformers wanted to break free from the legacy of Windows and dare to compete on the merits of their software. At the center of this pitched battle stood Gates, the tactical genius who had created the company in his own image and who now accepts full responsibility for his fateful choices. "Every mistake you can lay at my feet," he told Bank, who takes him at his word -- offering the first critique of Gates's leadership not from the perspective of government prosecutors or envious software rivals but from "inside the company itself."

Ambitiousin scope and surprising in its conclusions, "Breaking Windows" contains sharply drawn portraits of key past and present executives, including Steve Ballmer, Jim Allchin, Brad Silverberg, Adam Bosworth, and Paul Maritz. Bank argues persuasively that the rifts within Microsoft underlie many of its recent troubles -- from the antitrust courtroom debacle to the exodus of many of the company's most talented employees to Gates's own fall from grace as a corporate leader and technology visionary. Yet even now, Bank contends, Gates could embrace the new rules of competition and restore Microsoft to leadership, perhaps ushering in a new era of openness and innovation.

"Breaking Windows" breaks new ground in its analysis of Microsoft's past and future business strategies. As Microsoft faces the waning importance of Windows, rallies behind XML, and confronts the open-source insurgency, the past Bank reveals is vital to understanding the future of this company and the still unfinished digital revolution it helped unleash.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

David Bank's Breaking Windows offers a scathing inside look at the past few tumultuous years at the Microsoft Corporation. Bank, who covers the company for The Wall Street Journal, bases this well-written tale on interviews he has conducted with most major players (including Bill Gates), along with boxes of e-mails and other documents that "provided an unprecedented glimpse into strategic debates and internal decision-making processes of a company that had long restricted outside access to its insular corporate culture." Through them he shows how Microsoft, which always put software above everything--and in more recent years made Windows its number-one priority--has scrambled and squabbled as first the Internet and then the U.S. government forced major directional changes and significant internal reevaluations.

Bank's story crackles with immediacy as he brings readers directly into the action with central characters like Gates, who "created a company that remained uniquely a projection of himself"; Steve Ballmer, the close friend of Gates and former sales-force leader elevated to CEO; Jim Allchin, a senior vice president who heads the Windows division and remains a staunch advocate for its dominance; and Brad Silverberg, another VP who launched Windows 3.1 and 95 before forming the Internet division and fervently trying to turn the company in its direction. Those who can't get enough on the behemoth from Redmond will find this an illuminating addition to their bookshelf. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

Wall Street Journal reporter Bank charts the downward spiral of Microsoft's public image: over the past five years, the company went from fearless New Economy pioneer to a predator vilified by its competitors and brought to trial in a landmark antitrust action. For those hungry to know how golden boy Bill Gates could end up looking like a defensive old-school monopolist, Bank has provided a hard-hitting yet evenhanded account. Interviews with all the major players from Gates on down (along with texts of flaming e-mails that singed the wings of such loyal allies as Ben Slivka and Brad Silverberg) lend support to Bank's argument that the debate within Microsoft over competing Windows and Internet strategies set the stage for the public spectacle of the trial and the mass exodus of talented employees. Rich and juicy details of internal company squabbles cast an unnerving dysfunctional-family pall over the Microsoft story at times. (Gates, unable to get his usual way with someone, once mused, "Something happens to a guy when his net worth passes $100 million.") Yet Bank's broad industry knowledge leads him to provocative conclusions that resonate beyond the story of a single company. Pointing out that Intel and Cisco also faced antitrust challenges but were able, through savvy negotiation, to escape the public relations disaster that come with a trial, he argues that although Gates understood the value of interoperability imposed by the Internet, he held on too long to his determination to maintain a long-term lock over his customers. (Aug.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1st edition (August 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743203151
• ISBN-13: 978-0743203159
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,360,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was there..., November 7, 2001

By 

Benjamin Slivka "Ben Slivka" (Clyde Hill, WA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft (Hardcover)

David Bank used to cover Microsoft for the Wall Street Journal. In this book he describes the period 1997-2000 at Microsoft as it coped with the success of Windows and Office and the threat of the Internet to the continuation of Microsoft's dominance. From e-mail snippets and interviews with many current and former Microsoft employees, he presents the "protect Windows" perspective of Bill Gates and Jim Allchin and contrasts that with the "do the new internet thing" perspective of people like Brad Silverberg and myself and others. Obviously Bill Gates prevailed and so a lot of people left. Overall I think a very balanced presentation -- you at least understand why Bill did what he did, even if you don't agree with his decision. Several juicy quotes from me. :-)

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The emperors of Redmond in their new Clothes, July 24, 2001

By 

Jason Michel (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft (Hardcover)

While reading "Breaking Windows", I felt as if I was holding a stick of dynamite, because this gripping book completely blows the lid off of the "official" Microsoft history of the last few years. David Bank has told a story seldom reported in the mainstream media, which is that the real battle for the internet was fought not between Microsoft and Netscape, or even between Microsoft and Sun. Ground zero in the battle for control of the internet was fought between various factions within Microsoft. Senior management, which viewed the internet as a threat to the Windows franchise, tried to contain the "disruptive innovations" advocated by company strategists seeking to wholly embrace the concept of internet computing.

The dilemma facing Microsoft in the new millennium is that their blockbuster franchises, Windows and Office, are "feature driven" businesses. Users continually upgrade to the newest version in order to get more power and features. This value proposition was the growth engine of the computing industry until the mid 1990s, when the internet burst onto the scene. In the internet model, power and features matter less than connectivity. What creates value in a network environment is the number of people or applications that connect to the network. The Windows upgrade strategy becomes vulnerable, because with each attempt to upgrade the installed base, the upgrade version starts out initially with zero users. How can Microsoft simultaneously leverage the network effects of the internet, and further the Windows and Office franchises? Should these goals be part of a unified strategy?

Anyone who wishes to understand today's current "infection point" in software and computing architecture should read this book. It is a superb account of the internal crisis at Microsoft in 1999-2000, as the company confronted its transformation from insurgent innovator to defender of the status quo. The issues raised in this book continue to confront the company today, as Microsoft attempts to regain leading-edge industry leadership with the .NET platform, while at the same time protecting Windows from becoming a mere hardware abstraction layer. The book sets a "de-facto standard" in framing some of the issues surrounding Microsoft and the Internet.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Detailed look at Microsoft, September 4, 2001

By 

Ronald Brown "rboffp" (Florham Park, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft (Hardcover)

This book provides a very detailed look at the inner workings of Microsoft. It describes the battles within the company to determine how to change in the face of the internet revolution. The author provides tremendous detail, much of which is taken from email correspondence made public by the antri-trust case. Some of the detail may be a little dull for some. My major problem with the book is with the author's premise that Gates has "broken" the company by not adapting to the internet quickly enough and instead focused on protecting and extending the windows dynasty. Nobody has really figured out how to make money off the internet, so why blame Microsoft? Gates did protect the Microsoft cash cow (windows). The internet has not made windows extinct, at least not yet. I think a little time is required to see if Gates' strategy was the right one or not. However, still a very worthwhile read for any interested in Microsoft and the PC industry.