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No Microsoft Questions

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

When Rockwell International Corp.’s semiconductor unit unveiled its new name, logo and slogan at an employee event earlier this month, the company made some oblique but inadvertent references to Microsoft Corp.

In introducing Conexant’s slogan, “What’s next in communications technologies,” chief executive-to-be Dwight Decker wanted to make clear that this was not a company fumbling for direction. “ ‘What’s next’ is not a question, it’s a statement,” Decker told his employees.

Microsoft’s slogan is very much a question: “Where do you want to go today?”

Apparently, in meetings about Conexant’s slogan “What’s next in communications technologies,” people had been referring to it as a question and management felt they had to underscore that it was a statement.

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It was not the only inadvertent reference to the Redmond, Wash., software giant. After the presentation, a live band started playing an instrumental version of the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up.”

That song was used to roll out Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system.

Jonathan Gaw covers technology and electronic commerce for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7818 and at jonathan.gaw@latimes.com.

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