Valley of the Boom

The Justice Department has charged Microsoft with

engaging in anti-competitive...

The government's now going after Microsoft with both barrels.

Designed to maintain its monopoly...

Cool.

In personal computer operating systems.

When you come across a snake, you kill it.

You don't go back and play with a dead snake.

We reached an agreement to sell the

Netscape Communications Corporation to AOL.

This guy who has been calling himself Michael Fenne is really David Kim Stanley,

a fugitive of the law.

What about the technology that I created?

Yeah, well, I'm trying to deal with this bankruptcy stuff so that you

and Chuck don't get arrested.

What?

Hey, what did y'all think of iBash?

Whooo!

You spent twelve million dollars of my money on something that didn't work.

Huh.

Michael Egan told us, "I wanna do business with you guys."

We bought 51% for 20 million.

Which at the time was the single biggest investment

in Internet history by an individual.

Got the girl.

Got the money.

Now I'm ready to live a disgusting frivolous life.

That piece was very damaging.

Dude, you know they took it out of context!

You created the context!

We are running a billion-dollar company.

And you played right into the narrative that maybe we shouldn't be.

Because it burned inside me.

Because.

Be-be-be-because.

Be-be.

Because.

It burned.

Because it burned inside me.

IPO gate is far from a sure case.

-Well, it's the Internet. It's life in the fast line.

Cash is cash.

-Anyone can create enough wealth in a couple of years to become a billionaire.

Fun becomes popular.

-Of the 175 Internet companies that went public this year almost one-third

are trading below their initial offering price.

Because it burned inside me.

America Online says combining the Web audience

of AOL and Netscape

will let consumers and businesses do more on the Web.

The combination creates a force to be reckoned with for anyone

targeting consumers on the Internet.

Yes, I went to work at AOL.

Is that so difficult to understand?

Sorry, I'm not angry at you.

Fine, let me break it down: I created something you all now use every day,

that speeds communication, commerce, education, even love.

And that thing was given to all of you.

You're welcome.

Did I make a tidy sum?

Yes, I did.

Did I leverage my wealth and position toward the greater good?

I did the thing I did.

And I retreated from a creative role to something else.

I'm a human being, with an expiration date.

And I'm living the rest of my life.

And I'm definitely done talking about it.

Hey.

Hey. I'm really sorry.

No, man. It's all good. You were right.

No, let's go in the conference room.

I feel really bad.

You drive this company.

You and your vision, made this all happen.

Todd, that's not true.

You made a mistake.

One that got amplified by the fishbowl we're living in as the guys

who started this company.

There wouldn't be a company without you.

There wouldn't be a fishbowl.

And there wouldn't have been the craziest IPO in history.

We did do that.

We did.

Because it burned inside me.

Why are we divided into thirds?

Hello?

Heeyyy, you up?

It's a lot, right?

I know, the entire thing.

This delicious bacchanal, this orgy if you will of money and power,

I mean, that big ol' juicy bubble,

it's starting to stretch tight.

Yeah, I know, you can feel it right, yeah, I know, it is full to bursting,

the signs are everywhere, the center will not hold.

That's Yeats, bitch.

So, I and all of us financial sector experts,

as certified investment practitioners,

do the prudent thing, the wise thing, the right thing,

and hew tightly to our fiduciary responsibility, right?

Well, as they say in the olden days,

NOT.

Everybody wanted what we were building.

I told them, I said, you can't have my social security number.

You can't know who I am or where I come from.

If you want what we're building at Pixelon,

you have to leave my past alone,

whatever that may be.

That was the deal.

This guy that's been calling himself Michael Fenne is really...

Somebody named David Kim Stanley,

who is on the State of Virginia's Most Wanted List

for uh, you know, being a fugitive of the law.

First of all, I threw my driver's license away,

threw very piece of,

every trace of anything that might identify me as David Stanley.

I threw all that away.

Um, I dyed my hair blonde, I put on 200 pounds.

I did as much as I could do short of mutilation to change my appearance.

The founder is fictional, which is kind of appropriate because

in many ways the product is fictional too.

Almost immediately after iBash, it was pretty clear that it was a failure.

The fact that they were unable to stream the event live on the Internet confirmed:

That this was a technology that wasn't ready for prime time.

I specifically made it my objective to let the chairman of the board know:

This was not possible and they kept going forward anyway.

The actual broadcast of it live,

Pixelon didn't even broadcast it live.

IBash failed.

Michael, this is the last time I'm gonna call you.

I'm getting on a flight and we're gonna hash this out in person.

And you'd better have some very compelling answers.

Just try not to attract attention.

They have people everywhere.

I don't know how to drive and attract any less attention.

If they've put me "beyond salvage" that means they might disappear me.

We just need to keep moving.

Please, speed up!

Michael, you're scaring me.

Hey, pull over!

Ah! Ok.

Ok look, you should be scared.

We should all be scared, the CIA doesn't mess around.

Why would the CIA?

Hey, I told you not to ask me about that.

It puts you at risk!

Michael's behavior by all accounts was increasingly erratic.

The hit squad is probably on the way.

And this new so-called "CEO," Paul Ward?

He's working for the bad guys.

What are you, the "hit squad?"

Are we in danger?

I thought you liked Paul and Denise.

We had them over to the house!

I thought the whole iBash thing was such a big success.

Honey, I need you to do something for me,

you go home, get any of my papers in my office and put them in a box

and then put them in the cubby hole under the garage. Ok?

Yeah. Hey, shh. Get down!

Ok, sit tight, baby.

Do not answer the phone or the door under any circumstances,

I'm talking about your life here.

This may be the last time we see each other,

know that I have truly loved you,

even when you let me down.

Oh, Michael, please don't say that.

Please. I don't.

Michael, Michael!

AOL is more powerful in consumer activity than any company,

including Microsoft.

So here's competition at its finest, with people slicing up Netscape

for the real key assets.

Andreessen becoming the AOL CTO was a bit of, you know, wow,

that's an interesting one, isn't it?

There's a lot of irony around the uh AOL purpose of Netscape.

That was just part and parcel.

Given everything he had said about the company, yes, it was odd.

And I don't really know even what he did in that role, if anything.

You've got a visitor.

Ha-ha.

I just wrapped up all my transitional stuff here.

I just want to stop in and let you know where we are with the antitrust case.

Why?

Why would you want to update me?

Are you, I, because it has to do with the company,

Marc, with our positions.

My position?

Is that it's over.

It's far from over, Marc.

Microsoft was offered the option of negotiating an out-of-court settlement.

They've opted not to take it.

So it's not over.

They're not taking the option to settle.

- No. - Of course they're not.

Gates will continue to starve us out until there's nothing left; no engineers,

no will toward continuing to fight for open source.

It's a victory by demoralization and attrition.

"Death by a thousand paper cuts."

It's a good strategy, actually.

Yes or no.

Could it be a fool's errand?