Microsoft, Google Step Up Hostilities

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer vowed to “kill” Internet search leader Google Inc. in an obscenity-laced tirade, and a Google executive urged the company to chase a prized Microsoft executive “like wolves,” according to documents filed Friday in a bitter legal battle between the rivals.

The allegations, filed in a Washington state court, represent the latest salvos in a showdown triggered by Google’s July hiring of Kai Fu-Lee to oversee a research center in China.

Microsoft also accused Lee of giving confidential information about the company’s strategy in China to Google more than two months before he resigned.

An attorney for Mountain View, Calif.-based Google said Lee did nothing wrong by sending the document. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft declined to comment.