Talk of making a mountain of a mole hill.
To give some context, Frank Shaw, Head of Microsoft's Corporate Communications blogged this morning that Microsoft is ending its CES keynote role and will not have a booth starting 2013. CEA confirmed the same on their blog. NYTimes also chimed in and confirmed the same.
What then kicked a storm was a story by GigaOM, that said that Microsoft was booted out by CEA.
This keynote change of plan was initially covered as a Microsoft-initiated decision.
Statements from the Consumer Electronics Association subsequently recast the move as a mutual decision made amicably, as covered by The New York Times here.
But there’s more to it than that. Folks inside Microsoft said that it was the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the organization in charge of CES, that put the kibosh on future Microsoft keynotes and that Microsoft then pulled plans for its huge CES booth in response.
Said one company insider: “Microsoft didn’t pull out of the keynote — they were kicked out. Big difference.”
And what followed up was a string of blogs/sotries, taking up the GigaOM story and making a big deal of it. See Techmeme for more.
Here's the most funny and investigative journalism by MG Siegler who wrote a blog titled, Fuck Me? No. Fuck You.
Shaw wrote (and reiterates in the tweet) that it was Microsoft’s decision: “we have decided that this coming January will be our last keynote presentation and booth at CES.” But CES directly refutes this to NYT: “In an interview, Jason Oxman, senior vice president of industry affairs at the group, said it invited companies to deliver keynote speeches at the convention, not the other way around.”
Not the other way around. Come on, these guys are smiling in the front while they punch each other in the back. That’s why I asked Shaw for his candid thoughts. He’s usually a big fan of giving them over Twitter — especially when Google is involved. But perhaps he doesn’t want to totally destroy the relationship here.
Instead, both sides just want to make it clear in the most subtle way possible that they’re behind this decision. Or, to quote Mase (as one must in such situations): Fuck me? No. Fuck you.
It is funny to see that this becomes top story on Techmeme based on just one liner from an anonymous source in some story with no credible backup and you have people lined up to then sqabble over other sentences. Grow up guys, take a chill pill. There will be many other better reasons for you to bash up large corporations, swear on your favorites and get your audience. Let's not make a non-issue take the center stage and waste tech community's time.