INQUIRER Top 5 Microsoft U-turns

IT WAS THAT dreadful British prime minister Margaret Thatcher who said “the lady’s not for turning”, but that attitude put the Iron Lady in a small minority. Most of us are happy to back up and do a U-turn with the changing of the wind, or any minor realignment in the universe.

Staying with politics, Winston Churchill swapped the Conservatives for the Liberals then became an independent and then rejoined the Tories. “Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat,” he said. A somewhat lesser figure in the political firmament, David Owen* started the SDP in frustration at what he saw as a leftwards shift on behalf of the Labour Party. He then formed a coalition with the Liberal Party, declined to help in a full merger, led a much-reduced SDP, and wound down the party through lack of voter interest.

In sport, Michael Jordan temporarily left American football for baseball, while Ian Botham had a go at football instead of cricket for a while. Sir Alex Ferguson said he would quit Manchester United at the end of the season several years ago but is still there.

In the arts, that fine travel writer James Morris became Jan Morris, swapping gender as well as first name. That’s quite a turn to take when you come to think of it.

Microsoft yesterday surprised many by saying it would open the books on its software, revealing and documenting critical APIs and other information. Five more technology U-turns Microsoft took are listed here:

5. Commerce Server. Microsoft took a most unusual step last year by announcing that it will co-develop future versions with Canadian firm Catcus Commerce. Of course, many firms outsource development projects, but few publicly admit they are handing over the keys.

4. Stac Electronics. In the early 1990s, Microsoft found itself embroiled in a nasty lawsuit with Stac Electronics, developer of the then-popular Stacker software for disk compression. The suit related to the fact that Microsoft had put very similar technology called DoubleSpace in DOS 6.0. Microsoft got out of trouble through the simple expedient of taking a stake in Stac and paying a significant sum to settle all litigation.

3. OS/2. IBM co-opted Microsoft to help develop a PC operating system to succeed DOS and Windows. After the first release, whispers were that the relationship was turning rocky. Even as suspicions grew, Microsoft insisted it was committed to the system software and then in 1990 after Windows 3.0 became a huge success, Microsoft decided it had another plan. The rest, as
they say, is history.

2. Yahvole! Microsoft was regarded as pretty stingy on acquisitions. Apart from the recent deal to buy ad network Aquantive, Microsoft has never spent more than a billion and half dollars on a deal - a significant night out for you and me but not for the Redmondians. Microsoft’s CFO kept reminding everybody that big deals weren’t really Microsoft’s thing. Then it said it wanted to buy Yahoo for over $44 billion and was turned down, proving, as the Beatles knew, that money can’t buy you love.

1. WWW. CompuServe and America Online were pretty worried about Microsoft’s upcoming online service, almost ready for release in the early 1990s. When the web changed everything, Microsoft made a historic decision to can the product, whistling goodbye to a ton of R&D investment. Microsoft might not have built a Google from that decision, but it did build a very sizeable business, as well as spinning out another lucrative franchise in Expedia. Whenever anybody tells you about how big companies can’t move quickly, remind them of that bold switch. µ

* Unless they are still wielding a stethoscope, beware of people who insist on being called Doctor.