Satya Nadella is a fearsome operator.
| VCs | Mus | Sat | dilemmas | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Satya Nadella | ||||
| Acquire Inflection | ⨉ | ✓ | ⨉ | VCs T wrt Sat Mus P wrt Sat |
| Hire Mustafa Suleyman to head a new division at Microsoft. | - | ✓ | ✓c | Mus t wrt Sat |
| Mustafa Suleyman | ||||
| Bring most of Inflection's 70 staff with him. | ⨉ | ✓ | ✓ | VCs P wrt Mus Sat T wrt Mus |
Satya Nadella 's adoption is conditional (promise) on Mustafa Suleyman bringing most of Inflection's 70 staff with him.
Tuesday’s hiring was “basically an acquisition of Inflection without having to go through regulatory approval”, wrote Tony Wang, managing partner at venture capital firm 500 Global.
Steven Weber, a professor and expert on technology and intellectual property at the University of California, Berkeley, noted the deal was similar to the offer Microsoft made to OpenAI employees after chief executive Sam Altman was temporarily sacked last year.
Microsoft and Inflection have stressed that the agreement is not an acquisition and that Inflection remains an independent company. FT