Microsoft Needs Some Help, Says Former Employee [Bloomberg]

Ex-Microsoftie Damon Danieli talked about his former employer during an event held by the software giant at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, trying to explain some of the decisions made by the company in the last few years.

Danieli was involved in several projects at Microsoft, including the Xbox Live service and ActiMates, the less known plush toys released during the 90s.

And even though he’s a former Microsoft employee, he started the speech by criticizing the company.

“Microsoft needs some help. Just look at the title: `Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure Powered by TechStars, Startup Edition Service Pack 1’,” he was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

Danieli then went on to explain that Microsoft used to pay its developers to create solutions that were very similar to the ones belonging to acquired companies, such as Skype. Microsoft will soon discontinue Windows Live Messenger and move all its users to Skype.

“It pains me to see what happens now where Microsoft pays $8.5 billion (€6.3 billion) to acquire Skype or $1.2 billion (€896 million) for Yammer,” Danieli said.