Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry--and Made Himself the Richest Man in America by Stephen Manes |
by Roger Lowenstein
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Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace |
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen may be the most well-known rulers of the huge computer empire, but this latest offering attempts to show that the company's current CEO, the colorful and bombastic Steve Ballmer, an early Microsoft employee and friend of Gates's from their days at Harvard, is in fact the company's muscle. Unfortunately, this "biography" is little more than a re-hashing of Microsoft's already well-documented ruthless business practices, staggering financial success and endless legal travails. Seattle-based writer and researcher Maxwell, once profiled in the New Yorker for his research skills, does succeed in assembling an array of secondary sources into a concise edition of the Microsoft saga. But as a biography of Ballmer, the book falls woefully short. Readers learn that Ballmer was born in an affluent Detroit suburb, is of Jewish heritage, was a classic overachiever who worked his way into Harvard, dropped out of Stanford Business School and was briefly employed as a brand manager for Procter & Gamble. But beyond a few examples of Ballmer's frighteningly enthusiastic style he once ripped his vocal chords while giving a particularly forceful speech there's very little about Ballmer's true impact on Microsoft, or of Microsoft's impact on Ballmer. In his introduction, Maxwell gushes that Ballmer's is the "incredible story of tremendous ambition, genius, and charisma, of intense drive and merit, of insatiable greed and blatant arrogance." But there is in fact so little Ballmer and so much Microsoft in this book, it is a stretch to call this effort a biography.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Bill Gates has been profiled endlessly, his partnership with Paul Allen and the origins of Microsoft having attained the status of legend. Less has been written about his go-to guy, best friend, and the current CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer. Maxwell initially had Ballmer's cooperation on this unauthorized biography, but then he backed down, so personal access was limited. Maxwell casts Ballmer as a maniacal, driven, and very capable manager, so willing to do anything for Gates that his ruthless management style earned him the nickname "The Em-balmer." Comparing him to John Belushi's character in Animal House, Maxwell recounts how, in his enthusiasm for Microsoft, Ballmer ripped his vocal cords screaming, "Windows, Windows, Windows!" and once told reporters, "To hell with Janet Reno." The book ultimately focuses on the Microsoft antitrust case and how the arrogant and immature attitude at the top fostered its predatory monopolistic practices and kept up a public relations and courtroom policy of "deny, decry and delay." The most compelling bits surface unexpectedly, however, in the personal history of the Ballmer family. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen may be the most well-known rulers of the huge computer empire, but this latest offering attempts to show that the company's current CEO, the colorful and bombastic Steve Ballmer, an early Microsoft employee and friend of Gates's from their days at Harvard, is in fact the company's muscle. Unfortunately, this "biography" is little more than a re-hashing of Microsoft's already well-documented ruthless business practices, staggering financial success and endless legal travails. Seattle-based writer and researcher Maxwell, once profiled in the New Yorker for his research skills, does succeed in assembling an array of secondary sources into a concise edition of the Microsoft saga. But as a biography of Ballmer, the book falls woefully short. Readers learn that Ballmer was born in an affluent Detroit suburb, is of Jewish heritage, was a classic overachiever who worked his way into Harvard, dropped out of Stanford Business School and was briefly employed as a brand manager for Procter & Gamble. But beyond a few examples of Ballmer's frighteningly enthusiastic style he once ripped his vocal chords while giving a particularly forceful speech there's very little about Ballmer's true impact on Microsoft, or of Microsoft's impact on Ballmer. In his introduction, Maxwell gushes that Ballmer's is the "incredible story of tremendous ambition, genius, and charisma, of intense drive and merit, of insatiable greed and blatant arrogance." But there is in fact so little Ballmer and so much Microsoft in this book, it is a stretch to call this effort a biography.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Bill Gates has been profiled endlessly, his partnership with Paul Allen and the origins of Microsoft having attained the status of legend. Less has been written about his go-to guy, best friend, and the current CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer. Maxwell initially had Ballmer's cooperation on this unauthorized biography, but then he backed down, so personal access was limited. Maxwell casts Ballmer as a maniacal, driven, and very capable manager, so willing to do anything for Gates that his ruthless management style earned him the nickname "The Em-balmer." Comparing him to John Belushi's character in Animal House, Maxwell recounts how, in his enthusiasm for Microsoft, Ballmer ripped his vocal cords screaming, "Windows, Windows, Windows!" and once told reporters, "To hell with Janet Reno." The book ultimately focuses on the Microsoft antitrust case and how the arrogant and immature attitude at the top fostered its predatory monopolistic practices and kept up a public relations and courtroom policy of "deny, decry and delay." The most compelling bits surface unexpectedly, however, in the personal history of the Ballmer family. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
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Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
Steve Ballmer can remind you of many people. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
monopoly police, predatory monopolist, code monkeys, revenue river, antitrust trial Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, Country Day, Wall Street, Paul Allen, New York Times, Fred Ballmer, Cameron Mhyrvold, Farmington Hills, Sun Microsystems, Supreme Court, Currier House, Gary Kildall, San Francisco, Bea Ballmer, James Fallows, Jeff Raikes, John Heilemann, Ken Auletta, Silicon Valley, United States, World War, Bob Metcalfe, Business Week, Robin Williams New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Steve Ballmer can remind you of many people. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
monopoly police, predatory monopolist, code monkeys, revenue river, antitrust trial Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, Country Day, Wall Street, Paul Allen, New York Times, Fred Ballmer, Cameron Mhyrvold, Farmington Hills, Sun Microsystems, Supreme Court, Currier House, Gary Kildall, San Francisco, Bea Ballmer, James Fallows, Jeff Raikes, John Heilemann, Ken Auletta, Silicon Valley, United States, World War, Bob Metcalfe, Business Week, Robin Williams New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 55
books:
See all 55 books this book cites
1
book
cites this book:
- The Silicon Boys: And Their Valley of Dreams by David A. Kaplan on page 88, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace on page 59, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Beneath the Wheel by Hermann Hesse on page 49, and Back Matter
- How the Web Was Won: The Inside Story of How Bill Gates and His Band of Internet Idealists Trans- Formed a Software Empire by Paul Andrews in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- High Noon: The Inside Story of Scott McNealy and the Rise of Sun Microsystems by Karen Southwick in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 55 books this book cites
- A Bibliography of the Personal Computer: The Books and Periodical Articles by Roy, A. Allan on page 20
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