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June 10, 2006

Robert Scoble to Leave Microsoft, Joins PodTech.net

Michael Arrington

48 comments »

It looks like recently funded PodTech.net has hired Microsoft’s Robert Scoble, who writes one of the most popular blogs, and he’ll be moving from Washington to Silicon Valley.

I spoke to Robert briefly a few minutes ago. His on the record comments were “No comment for now. I’ll be posting shortly.” His off the record comments were, well, off the record. Congratulations to both John Furrier, the founder of PodTech, and Robert.

This is a bigger blow to Microsoft than will be apparent at first. Robert was responsible for much of the positive press around Microsoft. He put a very human face on Microsoft, and did much to get people to take a new look at the long hated company. I’m not sure Microsoft could replace him, or if they will even try.

Dave Winer, a long time friend of Scoble’s, just wrote a long post about his decision to leave Microsoft. He says “A person like Scoble can have enormous influence just by adopting some very simple ideas.” I agree. I missed the dinner last night that Dave mentioned because I was in Las Vegas for the eBay Live conference. Sounds like it was a good one.

And of course, Hugh Macleod has a great cartoon summing up the blogging madness around this story nicely.

Update: Robert’s first post on this is here.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 10th, 2006 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Anonymous

    June 10th, 2006 at 9:51 pm

    I also get the feeling that other high profile Microsoft employees may begin to leave as well. Although we can only see what Scoble has done from the outside, I’m sure his blog (as well as himself, of course) was a great source of motivation for many Microsoft employees. Remember how vocal Microsoft employees were at Mini-Microsoft when Vista was delayed?

    Anyway, it seems Google was smart in this regard…they created an Official Google Blog.

    Robert I wish you the best of luck at PodTech.

  2. basu

    June 10th, 2006 at 9:53 pm

    This looks like it will turn out very good for both Scoble and PodTech. I’ve been reading his blog often lately and I think that he’ll make a good addition to PodTech and could take it places. As for Microsoft, well, there’s really no point in wasting time trying to figure them out, is there? I wonder if Scoble will change his blog’s name?

  3. Jim

    June 10th, 2006 at 9:53 pm

    Mike, What did Robert say “off the record”? When is he leaving?

  4. Anonymous

    June 10th, 2006 at 9:54 pm

    Digg this story: http://www.digg.com/technology.....odTech.net

  5. Michael Arrington

    June 10th, 2006 at 9:56 pm

    Jim - Robert said to look for his post on this shortly.

  6. Baher

    June 10th, 2006 at 10:14 pm

    I can’t believe Microsoft let him go, IMHO he’s a priceless asset to the company.

  7. Rod Edwards

    June 10th, 2006 at 10:37 pm

    Scoble will take a lot of brand equity with him - not to mention a powerful undestanding of blogs, their impact, and politics.

  8. Gautam

    June 10th, 2006 at 10:41 pm

    wow !

    that’s some wild news !

    Microsoft should bend over backwards to retain him ! That’ll be awesome for their brand equity !

  9. Coup

    June 10th, 2006 at 11:57 pm

    This is a bomb. What a coup for PodTech. Genius by them. Scoble is a global brand and I think that he thrives. PodTech is VC backed by top tier 1 investors - Scoble will shine in that culture! Best of luck

  10. Jason

    June 11th, 2006 at 11:11 am

    “”global brand”"…i think you are confusing him with Coca cola!

  11. Danny

    June 11th, 2006 at 12:38 pm

    Bad move for Microsoft - Scoble was valuable because of his public identity as the numero uno Microsoft geek blogger. They should have retained him.

    Bad move for PodTech - they will be wasting a shitload of money on a ‘blogger’. Scoble was valuable until he had access to the internals of Microsoft.

    Good move for Scoble - will earn a lot from those VCs, and this also clears the way for him to join Google (if they want him).

  12. zaphodim

    June 11th, 2006 at 12:54 pm

    Windbags like Scoble are a dime a dozen, and Silicon Valley is full of hot air. Nobody cares which direction the hot air is coming from.

  13. Search Engines WEB

    June 11th, 2006 at 2:26 pm

    It is ironic that he is leaving AFTER the RECENT highly publicized changes in Microsoft’s HR policies - which both he and Mimi Posted about.

  14. Angry Black Man

    June 11th, 2006 at 4:58 pm

    Why even bother mentioning he had off-the-record comments if you’re not going to post them? Seems like a pretty lame self-importance tactic.

  15. vemrion

    June 11th, 2006 at 6:38 pm

    I agree that Scoble had a good influence over at Microsoft. He was a stalwart defender of a company that has had a lot of PR problems of late. He was a great asset and I think Microsfoft probably should have done more to make him stay.

    The thing I wonder is: Will Scoble keep his same blog? What kind of deal did he work out with Microsoft when they first hired him? Does he keep the blog? Was it always considered to be his private blog even though he commented about ’softies all the time? Kind of a delicate situation it would appear, but hopefully Scoble thought of this beforehand and made sure the blog was his exclusive domain; otherwise he would lose part of his identity. I guess we’ll have to wait til tomorrow for more details.

  16. Dano

    June 11th, 2006 at 8:50 pm

    Danny,
    Bad move for PodTech? You crazy Scoble is a brand and an A List blogger before he joined Microsoft. He is a talented guy and the PodTech guys are smart to grab him. My take is that he will kick ass there.

  17. James Noland

    June 12th, 2006 at 3:38 am

    Scoble were going to miss you here in Pittsburgh.
    Here we Go Steelers!!!!!

  18. Helio

    June 12th, 2006 at 8:53 am

    While he may have put a “human face” on MS and seemed to have gotten them started blogging I never read a single post of his that was insightful or particulary unique in anyway. I lot of them were just “I have seen orgami and I want one!!!” garbage. The much less read blogs from the MS tech folks are much more interesting.

  19. Frank Shaw

    June 12th, 2006 at 3:08 pm

    I think the positive impact robert had was a direct result of the great PR counsel he received over time. ;)

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    September 12th, 2006 at 5:32 am

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  21. Andry

    October 8th, 2006 at 10:56 am

    Autor, Respect!

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    October 10th, 2006 at 11:05 am

    !!! It is class to itself

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    February 3rd, 2007 at 6:56 am

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    February 19th, 2007 at 1:36 pm

    You are right, home exchange is gathering steam fliesen. New home exchange sites are launching almost daily.

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