Microsoft Plays Host to CEOs From 120 Major Corporations
Underscoring its influence despite the continuing antitrust battles, Microsoft Corp. gathered chief executives of 120 major corporations from around the world Thursday to talk technology.
Microsoft executives insisted the antitrust suit, which was filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and 20 state attorneys general and scheduled to go to court Sept. 8, would not be a part of the discussion.
“We are talking about the Internet, the use of the Internet,” said Chairman Bill Gates. “The antitrust suit hasn’t come up.”
But at a time when the software giant needs all the friends it can get in its battle with the government, Microsoft was clearly prepared to address the antitrust issue. Confidential materials put together by summit organizers included “Potential Questions” about the impact of the antitrust suit on Microsoft’s public image and the lessons Gates is drawing from his encounters with the government.
Conspicuously absent from the assembly were U.S. government officials. Last year, Vice President Al Gore was on hand to open the meeting. Company executives said the meeting was designed for Microsoft to share with its customers ways in which organizations can use technology to increase competitiveness.
The guest list included a who’s who of chief executives for such companies as Allstate, Best Buy, Cisco, Kodak, Dow Chemical, GTE, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Shell Oil, UAL Corp., Time Warner and WorldCom.
Compaq Computer Corp. Chief Executive Eckhard Pfeiffer said discussions focused on the explosive potential of electronic commerce over the Internet. “Your entire business process is driven by electronic commerce,” he said. “It’s going to develop faster than any prediction.”
Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chief executive of the Carlson Cos., a travel services provider, said she came to the conference to see how companies are using technology to transform their businesses. “We are looking to be a digital dynamo. This is the place to come to learn to do that.”
Nelson is one of several women executives on the guest list, which also included Mattel CEO Jill E. Barad and Katherine Graham of the Washington Post. Microsoft was criticized for the lack of women at its first CEO summit last year.
According to the confidential documents, some guests, such as Gap Chief Executive Millard S. Drexler, were chosen for being innovators in their field, while others, including those from Compaq, Boeing, Alcoa and Johnson & Johnson, were identified as “friends of Microsoft.”
Microsoft’s ability to hold the attention--for two days--of many of the nation’s most respected executives reflects both the software giant’s influence as a technology power as well as the personal fame of its chairman.
Summit participants were to spend Thursday evening at Gates’ $60-million high-tech mansion on Lake Washington. At that gathering, billionaire Warren Buffett was scheduled to answer questions in a “fireside chat.”
Microsoft marketing executives said the opportunity to brush shoulders with chief executives substantially deepens the company’s relationships with the companies they control and opens new sales opportunities.
Jeff Raikes, Microsoft group vice president for sales and marketing, said last year’s summit resulted in its forming a strategic partnership with at least one major company.
“It better help them sell [computer] systems,” said David Readerman, an analyst at San Francisco-based Montgomery Securities. “If it doesn’t, it’s a failed meeting.”
