When a young tech company with outsized ambitions goes public, somewhere an older tech company dies a little on the inside.
So it was eight years ago with Microsoft, then the biggest, baddest technology company in the world, when Google sold shares to the public. The I.P.O. filled Google’s gas tanks, fueling a series of business battles in the years to come with Microsoft (search, applications, mobile), many of which have not gone in Microsoft’s favor.
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