Bill Gates suggests tech companies like Apple 'deserve' tough questioning
Major tech companies such as Apple should face tough criticism from governments, Microsoft founder and former CEO Bill Gates said in an interview, a kind of questioning that big companies should naturally expect to face.
In a continuation of a series of interviews with various outlets, Gates proposed that tech companies of the size of Apple should "deserve" special attention from government officials and regulators, simply because of their sheer size and power.
Speaking to Dax Shepard on the Armchair Expert podcast, Gates explained that the events of the July 29th House Judiciary Committee testimony featuring Apple's Tim Cook and the CEOs of Amazon, Facebook, and Google are largely to be expected, and that the level of scrutiny will be intense.
"If you are as successful as I am, or any of those people you are, you deserve rude, unfair, tough questions," said Gates. "The government deserves to have shots at you. That type of grilling comes with the super successful territory, it's fine.
Gates speaks from experience, as his leadership of Microsoft involved many instances where he was asked questions by lawmakers and other parties. The most notable was the events of the 1998 lawsuitof the United States against Microsoft, where the government accused Microsoft of illegally maintaining a software, one which heavily featured videotaped depositions from Gates.
The conversation also covered Gates' opinion of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, which was also brought up in a previous interview. Referring to him again as a "wizard" compared to Gates as a "minor wizard," Gates also suggested Jobs was "tough" and was "a genius" at reviving Apple on his return.
The 97-minute podcast covers a wide array of other topics, including the movie Spy Game, vaccinations, and Diet Coke.
In a continuation of a series of interviews with various outlets, Gates proposed that tech companies of the size of Apple should "deserve" special attention from government officials and regulators, simply because of their sheer size and power.
Speaking to Dax Shepard on the Armchair Expert podcast, Gates explained that the events of the July 29th House Judiciary Committee testimony featuring Apple's Tim Cook and the CEOs of Amazon, Facebook, and Google are largely to be expected, and that the level of scrutiny will be intense.
"If you are as successful as I am, or any of those people you are, you deserve rude, unfair, tough questions," said Gates. "The government deserves to have shots at you. That type of grilling comes with the super successful territory, it's fine.
Gates speaks from experience, as his leadership of Microsoft involved many instances where he was asked questions by lawmakers and other parties. The most notable was the events of the 1998 lawsuitof the United States against Microsoft, where the government accused Microsoft of illegally maintaining a software, one which heavily featured videotaped depositions from Gates.
The conversation also covered Gates' opinion of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, which was also brought up in a previous interview. Referring to him again as a "wizard" compared to Gates as a "minor wizard," Gates also suggested Jobs was "tough" and was "a genius" at reviving Apple on his return.
The 97-minute podcast covers a wide array of other topics, including the movie Spy Game, vaccinations, and Diet Coke.
Comments
How nice that he can run important charities out of his wealth pool instead of what would have naturally enhanced the wealth of so many - it wasn’t just US competitors who suffered from his actions.
Everyone benefits from the greedy pursuits of those who make a lot to money. The ideal of socialism, however well meaning, will only ever be a short-lived dream.
That’s not meant as an excuse for the greed or the hilarious hypocrisy of Bill Gates. It’d be great if everyone could share and get along and not be greedy, but that is never ever going to happen in a large society no matter how much we want it.
He should have tough questioning.
Epic undercut Steam and want Apple to foot the bill. That’s what this lawsuit is really about.
You had a monopoly on PC operating systems, and you used that monopoly to create barriers to the market. That's actually illegal, so sit the f**k down, Bill.
But I wouldn’t even class Gates as an apprentice wizard. MS hasn’t produced a single world changing product the way Apple has.
That is not the Bill Gates we all knew when he was in charge of Microsoft. He's much older now and trying to get into Heaven.
Let's remind everybody the worst thing (not the only thing) that Microsoft did:
They required all PC manufacturers to pay for a Windows license for every PC they sold, regardless of whether Windows was installed or not. This was at a time when IBM offered a competing (and by the way, superior) OS. This killed all competition in the market for PC-compatible OSes. Microsoft was able to do this for years, enforcing a monopoly that made them gazillions of dollars. (And perhaps worse, severely suppressed technological growth in the PC industry for at least 20 years.) Microsoft has never paid for this crime. Yes, it is a crime and they got convicted for it but they did not really get punished. There was certainly no disgorgement of the profits they amassed from this illegal monopoly.