Bonum Certa Men Certa

Money Matters for Gates, Ballmer and Allen Families

Summary: A roundup of financial news for the most part (and some relationships to Microsoft families)

THIS POST is not a look at the personal lives of people; rather, it delves into professional activity alone. With that in mind, let it be stated that Bill Gates' father is a participant in what became of Microsoft. Many times before we wrote about his role in the SCO lawsuit, Abramoff visas, and so on and so forth. We last mentioned all this (with links) right here.



Microsoft is now disengaging from this man's firm. It was covered by far the most by the Microsoft journalists and the press up in Washington. Examples that we found include known pro-Microsoft reporters and also the Seattle press.

Microsoft will no longer seek regular legal counsel from a firm named after Bill Gates' father, after it was chopped from a list of regular suppliers.

K&L Gates has been removed from Microsoft's list of preferred providers following a comprehensive review, the company said, which saw Microsoft seek competitive bids. Microsoft narrowed a list of 16 potential suppliers down to 10 in the process.

No single factor was believed to be behind the decision to chop K&L Gates.


More from Seattle:

Microsoft, under increasing pressure to cut costs, says a competive bidding process led it to drop law firm K&L Gates from its top 10 list of "preferred" legal providers. The news is notable because the firm traces its roots, in part, to Preston Gates & Ellis -- with the "Gates" in its name referring to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' father. But Microsoft says it will still continue to work with the firm.


The sources that covered it matter because it was published mostly in the Microsoft-friendly press, which didn't take the notion and observation to task.



Bill Gates comes from a family of lawyers and diplomats on the face of it, but this is a subject that we covered before. There is also this self-congratulatory new piece.

Meanwhile we find that Microsoft's PR person in CNET posted this: "Ballmer: 'The world borrowed too much money'"

Says the man whose company is now borrowing money for reasons it is unwilling to publicly disclose. The pro-Microsoft reporter Stuart J. Johnston asked, "If Microsoft Is So Rich, Why Is It Borrowing?"

Well, maybe it's not so rich after all. The company has, after all, engaged in financial fraud before and its investors are unhappy, some making comparisons to Madoff. See our previous posts about Microsoft and debt:



Also in the news right now: "Does Bill Gates Have An Open Sell Order On His Microsoft (MSFT) Stock? Dumps 20M Shares In 10 Trading Days"

A filing after the close on Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) showed that Bill Gates sold another 3 million shares of the stock on 5/12 at $19.79.


Our reader Twitter, pointing to the article above, explains that "Bill Gates dumps 3 million shares at less than $20.

"If Microsoft is buying stocks, it's people executives raping the company. They sell out and leave the worker bees with a lot of useless paper and a failed company [...] but the company has done dumber things."

"In other news," he says, "Microsoft takes on debt." He points to an article from a Microsoft faithful [1, 2] who spins it like many others that cite one another.

“A reader has just informed us of yet more evidence of the tie between the New York Times and Microsoft.”"The article speculates the 3.75 billion dollars are going toward acquisitions and assures it's readers that the company has plenty of cash," he says. But he continues: "I'm not so sure. Could it be that they are actually out of money and ready to implode?"

We have heard this from other sources too.

Whether it's true or not, Wikipedia used to say Steve Ballmer is a son of a banker. It no longer says such a thing, but interestingly enough it does however shed light on Microsoft's obsession with extreme marketing: "In 1990 Ballmer married Connie Snyder, who was on Microsoft's PR team at the Waggener Group in the '80s."

A reader has just informed us of yet more evidence of the tie between the New York Times and Microsoft [1, 2]. And despite the fact the New York Times had no choice but to dump Silverlight-related software, here is this duo collaborating again, conspiring against Web standards, essentially.

Microsoft, in collaboration with The New York Times, introduced at the start of May 2009 the Silverlight 2 Kit for the New York Times Open application programming interfaces.


They even call it 'Open' API in order to (once again) falsely associate Silverlight with "openness" -- whatever that actually means these days.

First they reluctantly dumped Silverlight (for technical reasons) and now the The New York Times is helping Microsoft Silverlight. It's truly mystifying. But what is more interesting is the fact that Steve Ballmer is actually writing/publishing for them right now. Yes, Steve Ballmer has just published an article there and our reader notes that he says: "My brain is just chop, chop, chop, chop, chop. And so, if you really want to get the best out of people, you have to really hear them and they have to feel like they've been really heard. So I've got to learn to slow down and improve in that dimension, both to make me better and to make the people around me better."

In relation to the phrase "chop, chop, chop", our reader points to Alice Cooper'a video/performance of "Chop, Chop Chop" and adds some lyrics:

Some people call me the creeper 'Cuz they don't know my name or face I got 'em running in circles Because a homicidal genius never leaves a trace I'm a lonely hunter City fullo f game Walkin in the neon lights Chop, chop, chop - engine of destruction Chop, chop, chop - a perfect killing machine Chop, chop, chop - it's a symbiotic function Chop, chop, chop - I keep the city so clean


Truly strange choice of words.

Lastly, regarding Paul Allen's baby, it's pretty much going the wrong way. From the latest news:



If economic depression now looms or reigns (for obvious reasons), then definite answers should not be so distant in the future.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft-Sponsored Xenophobia and Nationalism
IBM is very similar in this regard
Tentative Summary of Things to Publish in Project 2030
I'll still be in my forties by then
 
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Snowy Photos and utism is a Spectrum
Links for the day
Vintage is Sometimes Better
Why can't we get back to "simple" if (or where) "simple" means better?
Climate Breakdown Means We'll be Publishing More, Not Less
Press freedom will be a common, recurring theme
Our 5-Year Geminispace Anniversary is Coming Up
I still remember when Gemini Protocol was quite new
It's Right to Point Out Violence From the Right
Violence is a recurring theme
Web Browsers That "Do Hey Hi" (AI)
State-of-the-art plagiarism or "autocomplete on steroids" (not coined by us, nevertheless a nice description) don't have much/any prospect
Links 20/09/2025: Hardware Projects in View, Some Independent Publishers About Russia Prosper After Cheeto Cuts Funding
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Options and TV Time Machine
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Retrocomputer, Antique Phone Experience, and More
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Internet Shutdowns, Media Censorship, and Climate Worries
Links for the day
About 700 New Gemini Capsules in 13 Months (or 54 Per Month)
4.8K would represent a 20% increase
Rust People: Drain the Swap, You're Holding It Wrong
Does Rust make sense?
Techrights the Name Turns 15
About 6 weeks from now we turn 19
Microsoft is Running Out of Time and Floating Fake Figures, Fake Projects, Fake Narratives, Fake Excuses
Also, a lot of Microsoft's "revenue" claims are circular financing (i.e. Microsoft buying from itself, which means Ponzi-like fraud)
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, linuxconfig.org, and Plagiarised Phoronix
Many articles out there are nowadays fake
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 19, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Navigating the Pressures of Modern Life and SpellBinding Accidentally Wrote Another Gemini Server
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Press Freedom Dying in US, Anti-Austerity Strikes in France, and Alan Rusbridger to Leave 'Prospect'
Links for the day
European Patent Office Illegally Gutting and Outsourcing Its Functions, Acting Like an Above-the-Law Commercial Business (It Won't Stop at Formalities Officers (FOs) and Classification Slop at the EPO)
breaking/violating laws and conventions
Offloading to the Sister Site
In the interest of not overwhelming readers
Links 19/09/2025: Coffee Club and "SpellBinding is Now Absurdly Fast"
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Lobbyist of American GAFAM Becomes Data Protection Commissioner in Europe
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Media Freedom Ceases to Exist in US, "Consider Dropping Twitter/X"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/09/2025: Thinking and Insect Bites
Links for the day
Microsoft E.E.E.: Git Will Now (or Very Soon) Fully Depend on Rust, Which is Controlled by Microsoft
Microsoft now makes Git dependent on Rust, or making Git dependent on GitHub, which is proprietary
The Right to Punch People (Apparently)
At Brett Wilson, Brett's job title is "Head of Crime" and Wilson normalises calls for violence
Slop or Fake Articles Have Turned Linux Journal From a Pioneering/Trailblazing "Linux" Magazine Into a Nuisance
some sites with former reputation - good reputation - turn into cesspools
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 18, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 18, 2025