tinyurl.com/docva -> www.smh.com.au/news/technology/microsoft-ceo-im-going-to-fing-kill-google/2005/09/03/1125302772214.html
CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to "kill" internet search leader Google Inc. in an obscenity-laced tirade, and Google chased a prized Mic rosoft executive "like wolves," according to documents filed in an incre asingly bitter legal battle between the rivals. The allegations, filed in a Washington state court, represent the latest salvos in a showdown triggered by Google's July hiring of former Microso ft executive Kai Fu-Lee to oversee a research and development centre tha t Google plans to open in China. Lee started at Google the day after he resigned from Microsoft. The tug-of-war over Lee - known for his work on computer recognition of l anguage - has exposed the behind-the-scenes animosity that has been brew ing between two of high-tech's best-known companies. Ballmer's threat last November was recounted in a sworn declaration by a former Microsoft engineer, Mark Lucovsky, who said he met with Microsoft 's chief executive 10 months ago to discuss his decision to leave the co mpany after six years. After learning Lucovsky was leaving to take a job at Google, Ballmer pick ed up his chair and hurled it across his office, according to the declar ation. Ballmer then pejoratively berated Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Lucovsky recal led. "I'm going to f---ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again," the declaration quotes Ballmer. In a statement, Ballmer described Lucovsky's recollection as a "gross exa ggeration. Mark's decision to leave was disappointing and I urged him st rongly to change his mind. But his characterization of that meeting is n ot accurate." Microsoft is suing to prevent Lee from leading Google's China expansion, maintaining those duties would violate the terms of a noncompete agreeme nt that he signed as part of his employment contract. Google has depicted Microsoft's lawsuit as a form of intimidation designe d to thwart a fast-growing rival that has emerged as a formidable threat to the software maker. The Lucovsky declaration is just one piece of evidence that Google has fi led in an attempt to prove that Microsoft is on a vendetta. Microsoft won the first round in the case in late July when King County S uperior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez issued an order temporarily barring Lee from performing the duties that Google hired him to do. The two rivals are scheduled to face off in court on Tuesday when Microso ft will ask Gonzalez to extend the order against Lee and Google until th e case goes to trial in January. As it tries to make its case, Microsoft is trying to demonstrate that Goo gle wanted Lee largely because he knows intimate details about Microsoft 's strategy for expanding in China and for the booming search engine mar ket. In its brief, Microsoft alleged that Lee sent confidential documents abou t the company's China strategy to Google a month before he was hired, al though Google insists all the material that Lee relayed to Google had be en made public previously. Microsoft also released an email from Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's direct or of business development, in an attempt to prove the company wants Lee for other projects besides the new China centre. "I all but insist that we pull out all the stops and pursue him like wolv es," Rosenberg wrote of Lee. "He is an all-star and will contribute in w ays that go substantially beyond China." Before resigning from Microsoft, Lee began to help Google plot its China strategy with a series of suggestions, including recommending possible s ites for the new office, according to Microsoft's brief. Lee also demanded that Google pay all his legal fees if Microsoft sued, a request that was granted.
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