7 ms·

Meet Gabe Newell, Microsoft’s next CEO

59 points by rodolfor 14y ago

rodolfor 14y ago
My money is on the poor performance of Windows Store, which could undermine OS sales. Since those are near-sacred at MSFT in my opinion will spur the Valve acquisition. The 'Gabe as CEO' is just a long shot but not the Valve M&A.
stcredzero 14y ago
> Looking at the micro level, it seems that Microsoft is just full of nasty backstabbing middle managers who violently defend the P&L of their unit, as opposed as working as a group (non-backstabbers get fired thanks to Microsoft’s bone-headed employee review method called ‘stack ranking’. it’s terrible and everyone points at it as the reason why Microsoft lost ground against its competitors.) Microsoft's adoption of this policy is termed by folks over at leswrong.org as an example of, "Conjuring An Evolution To Serve You." Like conjuring a genii, it's fraught with the strong likelihood of dire unintended consequences. http://lesswrong.com/lw/l8/conjuring_an_evolution_to_serve_you/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/l8/conjuring_an_evolution_to_serve_y...
woodchuck64 14y ago
"[Gabe] running Microsoft? It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity." But the necessary genetic engineering to save Microsoft from extinction is far more than building a brand new successful company from scratch. What would be the point?
- brendanobrien 14y ago
  I humbly disagree. Building a company to be the size of Microsoft is not a trivial matter, no matter how you stretch it. You'd need to catch a VERY big wave of innovation. I'm totally on side that the author is exercising a little "wishful thinking", and changing microsoft would suck, But I'd rather have (very deep seeded) management problem then have to come up with an idea as basic/brilliant as selling software for a profit.
skore 14y ago
> Gabe Newell (Valve’s CEO, founder and, if I’m not wrong, its only shareholder) keeps giving interviews where he states that “he doesn’t want to sell“. Many take him at face value. Well. Firstly, in M&A, when you don’t want to sell you just don’t. There’s no need to blab to the press about it. Except, I dunno, when they ask you? > Secondly, if your statements appear in the press, it usually means that what you are saying is: “I am not for sale. Unless you offer more than X. Then we’d totally sell out.” I believe this is the message Mr. Newell is trying to convey. Yes, we clearly live in that kind of world. The kind of world where the unwavering position that a highly achieved person demonstrates in almost everything they do has to be suspicious. You know what you should also do? Pepper your article with lots of pointless statistics and expletives. Because that totally helps make it seem more credible. Numbers! Charts! Fuck! Am I cool yet!? > Did anyone ever question why, suddenly, all these articles about company culture are appearing? Because you've only been paying attention the past couple months. > Valve is reportedly working on a Steam Linux box. This can only be intended to remove the Windows license and its concomitant restrictions from the market. Yes, clearly that's the only intent possible. Phew. Ok guys, I enjoy picking apart nonsense blog crap just as much as the next HN user, but this one makes it so easy that it's already getting boring a couple minutes in.
- 10098 14y ago
  > Numbers! Charts! Fuck! Am I cool yet!? Upvote to you
- dasil003 14y ago
  Agreed on all points; however, he's making a bold and verifiable prediction here. If it comes true he's going to look like a fucking genius and if it doesn't it's just more forgotten sound and fury of the blogosphere.
  - skore 14y ago
    The boldest blind chicken there ever was.
    - 14y ago
jamesaguilar 14y ago
This is so far-fetched I barely know how to respond.
eumenides1 14y ago
"Gabe Newell (Valve’s CEO, founder and, if I’m not wrong, its only shareholder) keeps giving interviews where he states that “he doesn’t want to sell“. Many take him at face value. Well. Firstly, in M&A, when you don’t want to sell you just don’t. There’s no need to blab to the press about it." Help me understand M&A, when you're asked by a reporter about selling your company, what can you say that will result in communicating to people that you don't want to sell your company? I think the author is reading too much into things
- rodolfor 14y ago
  If you don't want to sell the question never gets printed in the article and instead there's more of you blabbing about TF2 hats.
yamalight 14y ago
Why would Valve do this? Don't see any reason at all. Judging from interviews, Gabe loves games. Why the hell would he want to leave them for software & enterprise? Doesn't makes any sense to me.
rinon 14y ago
Wow, wild guessing aside, I certainly hope not! shivers
rocky1138 14y ago
OT, but am I the only one out there who thinks "Bumfuck Willy: The Fedora of Time 2D" would actually be awesome to play?
- coolsunglasses 14y ago
  I really want a 2d time-travelling tomb-raider game with that title now.
rocky1138 14y ago
"In Q3 2012, Steam added, for no apparent reason, non-gaming software to its library. " I believe this was to compete directly with the Windows 8 app store, of which Valve has been vocal in its distaste.
bittercynic 14y ago
Do you have any reference to support Jobs shorting Apple?
- rodolfor 14y ago
  Correction, he sold not shorted. But it was not declared publicly that he was the seller to put pressure on Gil Amelio. http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Steve-Jobs-Confirms-Apple-Stock-Sale-2812791.php http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Steve-Jobs-Confirms-A...
devindotcom 14y ago
Sorry, but this sounds like an extremely bizarre proposal to me. Everything I've learned about Gabe indicates he has absolutely no interest in this course of events. Why would he want to run Microsoft when he is head of a large, incredibly successful, innovative, growing company like Valve? This makes zero sense to me. "Yes, Gabe likes making games and selling silly virtual hats and guns that make big dimensional holes." I think this is extremely belittling of Gabe and Valve, and games in general, and completely mistaken to boot.
- DigitalJack 14y ago
  Because Gabe is an engineer and engineers have an insatiable need to fix things and microsoft needs fixing. But I don't buy it either. I think it would scare the pants off of the corporate customers of MS.
  - nness 14y ago
    Fixing Microsoft isn't an engineering problem; if it were, I'd wager their thousands of engineers would've done it already.
    - tobylane 14y ago
      It may be an engineer on top kind of solution that is needed. Apple had a designer at the top of their structure, so design got its way. This even made up for mistakes made while Jobs wasn't there. Having Gabe in sufficient control of non technical managers may well work, but then you could switch Gabe out for any trustable non-manager.
  - CamperBob2 14y ago
    I think it would scare the pants off of the corporate customers of MS. Ballmer's erratic leadership is scaring the pants off of customers, ISVs, and IHVs alike. In fact, the only people who still have their pants are Microsoft's competitors.
  - rodolfor 14y ago
    He might be an engineer but he was at Microsoft for 13 years and served as producer for the first three releases of Windows.
johndconroy 14y ago
I'm placing my bets on Marissa Mayer being Microsoft's next CEO
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  Of two implausible outcomes I find this one (Marissa) the slightly less implausible. (certainly Yahoo has already been courted once before and they work closely on search)
Arzh 14y ago
A bit strange that he brings Gabes ego into it. I would think that if hes trying to fill his ego (nothing about him seems to indicate that) he would try to stomp out microsoft, not run it.
jstelly 14y ago
That photo looks like someone took Gabe's head from this image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gabe_newell_doug_lombardi.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gabe_newell_doug_lombardi.... (this is a real photo of Gabe) and pasted it on a picture of someone else.
touristtam 14y ago
If anything Valve as a development studio has a notorious 'policy' of delivering product 'when it's done' (aka Valve Time) as opposed to MSFT product that are released periodically and that need numerous minor AND major patches with each and every enumeration. Based on that: How would Steam be integrated into MSFT corporate culture, without being killed? That might be the same question Newell is asking himself, in this scenario.

59 points by rodolfor 14y ago

My money is on the poor performance of Windows Store, which could undermine OS sales. Since those are near-sacred at MSFT in my opinion will spur the Valve acquisition. The 'Gabe as CEO' is just a long shot but not the Valve M&A.

stcredzero 14y ago

> Looking at the micro level, it seems that Microsoft is just full of nasty backstabbing middle managers who violently defend the P&L of their unit, as opposed as working as a group (non-backstabbers get fired thanks to Microsoft’s bone-headed employee review method called ‘stack ranking’. it’s terrible and everyone points at it as the reason why Microsoft lost ground against its competitors.) Microsoft's adoption of this policy is termed by folks over at leswrong.org as an example of, "Conjuring An Evolution To Serve You." Like conjuring a genii, it's fraught with the strong likelihood of dire unintended consequences. http://lesswrong.com/lw/l8/conjuring_an_evolution_to_serve_you/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/l8/conjuring_an_evolution_to_serve_y...

woodchuck64 14y ago

"[Gabe] running Microsoft? It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity." But the necessary genetic engineering to save Microsoft from extinction is far more than building a brand new successful company from scratch. What would be the point?

brendanobrien 14y ago
I humbly disagree. Building a company to be the size of Microsoft is not a trivial matter, no matter how you stretch it. You'd need to catch a VERY big wave of innovation. I'm totally on side that the author is exercising a little "wishful thinking", and changing microsoft would suck, But I'd rather have (very deep seeded) management problem then have to come up with an idea as basic/brilliant as selling software for a profit.

skore 14y ago

> Gabe Newell (Valve’s CEO, founder and, if I’m not wrong, its only shareholder) keeps giving interviews where he states that “he doesn’t want to sell“. Many take him at face value. Well. Firstly, in M&A, when you don’t want to sell you just don’t. There’s no need to blab to the press about it. Except, I dunno, when they ask you? > Secondly, if your statements appear in the press, it usually means that what you are saying is: “I am not for sale. Unless you offer more than X. Then we’d totally sell out.” I believe this is the message Mr. Newell is trying to convey. Yes, we clearly live in that kind of world. The kind of world where the unwavering position that a highly achieved person demonstrates in almost everything they do has to be suspicious. You know what you should also do? Pepper your article with lots of pointless statistics and expletives. Because that totally helps make it seem more credible. Numbers! Charts! Fuck! Am I cool yet!? > Did anyone ever question why, suddenly, all these articles about company culture are appearing? Because you've only been paying attention the past couple months. > Valve is reportedly working on a Steam Linux box. This can only be intended to remove the Windows license and its concomitant restrictions from the market. Yes, clearly that's the only intent possible. Phew. Ok guys, I enjoy picking apart nonsense blog crap just as much as the next HN user, but this one makes it so easy that it's already getting boring a couple minutes in.

10098 14y ago
> Numbers! Charts! Fuck! Am I cool yet!? Upvote to you
dasil003 14y ago
Agreed on all points; however, he's making a bold and verifiable prediction here. If it comes true he's going to look like a fucking genius and if it doesn't it's just more forgotten sound and fury of the blogosphere.
- skore 14y ago
  The boldest blind chicken there ever was.
  - 14y ago

jamesaguilar 14y ago

This is so far-fetched I barely know how to respond.

eumenides1 14y ago

"Gabe Newell (Valve’s CEO, founder and, if I’m not wrong, its only shareholder) keeps giving interviews where he states that “he doesn’t want to sell“. Many take him at face value. Well. Firstly, in M&A, when you don’t want to sell you just don’t. There’s no need to blab to the press about it." Help me understand M&A, when you're asked by a reporter about selling your company, what can you say that will result in communicating to people that you don't want to sell your company? I think the author is reading too much into things

rodolfor 14y ago
If you don't want to sell the question never gets printed in the article and instead there's more of you blabbing about TF2 hats.

yamalight 14y ago

Why would Valve do this? Don't see any reason at all. Judging from interviews, Gabe loves games. Why the hell would he want to leave them for software & enterprise? Doesn't makes any sense to me.

rinon 14y ago

Wow, wild guessing aside, I certainly hope not! shivers

rocky1138 14y ago

OT, but am I the only one out there who thinks "Bumfuck Willy: The Fedora of Time 2D" would actually be awesome to play?

coolsunglasses 14y ago
I really want a 2d time-travelling tomb-raider game with that title now.

rocky1138 14y ago

"In Q3 2012, Steam added, for no apparent reason, non-gaming software to its library. " I believe this was to compete directly with the Windows 8 app store, of which Valve has been vocal in its distaste.

bittercynic 14y ago

Do you have any reference to support Jobs shorting Apple?

rodolfor 14y ago
Correction, he sold not shorted. But it was not declared publicly that he was the seller to put pressure on Gil Amelio. http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Steve-Jobs-Confirms-Apple-Stock-Sale-2812791.php http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Steve-Jobs-Confirms-A...

devindotcom 14y ago

Sorry, but this sounds like an extremely bizarre proposal to me. Everything I've learned about Gabe indicates he has absolutely no interest in this course of events. Why would he want to run Microsoft when he is head of a large, incredibly successful, innovative, growing company like Valve? This makes zero sense to me. "Yes, Gabe likes making games and selling silly virtual hats and guns that make big dimensional holes." I think this is extremely belittling of Gabe and Valve, and games in general, and completely mistaken to boot.

DigitalJack 14y ago
Because Gabe is an engineer and engineers have an insatiable need to fix things and microsoft needs fixing. But I don't buy it either. I think it would scare the pants off of the corporate customers of MS.
- nness 14y ago
  Fixing Microsoft isn't an engineering problem; if it were, I'd wager their thousands of engineers would've done it already.
  - tobylane 14y ago
    It may be an engineer on top kind of solution that is needed. Apple had a designer at the top of their structure, so design got its way. This even made up for mistakes made while Jobs wasn't there. Having Gabe in sufficient control of non technical managers may well work, but then you could switch Gabe out for any trustable non-manager.
- CamperBob2 14y ago
  I think it would scare the pants off of the corporate customers of MS. Ballmer's erratic leadership is scaring the pants off of customers, ISVs, and IHVs alike. In fact, the only people who still have their pants are Microsoft's competitors.
- rodolfor 14y ago
  He might be an engineer but he was at Microsoft for 13 years and served as producer for the first three releases of Windows.

johndconroy 14y ago

I'm placing my bets on Marissa Mayer being Microsoft's next CEO

ChuckMcM 14y ago
Of two implausible outcomes I find this one (Marissa) the slightly less implausible. (certainly Yahoo has already been courted once before and they work closely on search)

Arzh 14y ago

A bit strange that he brings Gabes ego into it. I would think that if hes trying to fill his ego (nothing about him seems to indicate that) he would try to stomp out microsoft, not run it.

jstelly 14y ago

That photo looks like someone took Gabe's head from this image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gabe_newell_doug_lombardi.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gabe_newell_doug_lombardi.... (this is a real photo of Gabe) and pasted it on a picture of someone else.

touristtam 14y ago

If anything Valve as a development studio has a notorious 'policy' of delivering product 'when it's done' (aka Valve Time) as opposed to MSFT product that are released periodically and that need numerous minor AND major patches with each and every enumeration. Based on that: How would Steam be integrated into MSFT corporate culture, without being killed? That might be the same question Newell is asking himself, in this scenario.