Ballmer vowed to "kill" Google CEO, court hears

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to "kill" Google in an expletive-laced, chair-throwing tirade when a senior engineer told him he was leaving the company to go to work for Google, the engineer claimed in court documents made public on Friday.

The allegation, filed in Washington state court, is the latest salvo in an increasingly nasty court fight triggered when Microsoft executive Kai-Fu Lee jumped to Google in July in what Microsoft claims is a violation of a one-year, non-compete agreement.

In a sworn statement made public on Friday, Mark Lucovsky, another Microsoft senior engineer who left for Google in November 2004, recounted Ballmer's angry reaction when Lucovsky told Ballmer he was going to work for the search engine company.

Lucovsky said in his statement: "At some point in the conversation, Mr Ballmer said: 'Just tell me it's not Google'." Lucovsky replied that he was joining Google.

"At that point, Mr Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office," Lucovsky recounted, adding that Ballmer then launched into a tirade about Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "I'm going to f***ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to f***ing kill Google." Schmidt previously worked for Sun Microsystems and was the CEO of Novell.

Late on Friday, Ballmer issued a statement disputing Lucovsky's declaration. "Mark Lucovsky's account of our conversation last November is a gross exaggeration of what actually took place," Ballmer said. "Mark's decision to leave was disappointing and I urged him strongly to change his mind. But his characterisation of that meeting is not accurate."

The Lucovsky declaration is the latest salvo in the heated battle between Google and Microsoft over Google's hiring of Lee. Google has said Microsoft is attempting to scare its employees away from Google.

In the filing made public on Friday, Google also said that if Lee is allowed to join the company before a trial he will not "work or consult in any of the technical areas identified in Microsoft's proposed preliminary injunction. Rather, pending trial, he will open a product development centre in China, and staff it with non-Microsoft personnel".

Meanwhile, in separate court documents also made public on Friday, Microsoft said emails Kai-Fu Lee sent to Google executives bolster its case that the researcher is seeking to violate his employment contract by taking up a position as head of the search giant's China efforts.

According to the filing, Lee sent a 7 May email to Google's founder and chief executive saying he had heard Google was opening a China office and expressing interest in discussing the matter. In the email, Lee described himself as "corporate VP at Microsoft working on areas very related to Google", Microsoft reveals in the court documents.

Microsoft also notes that, in the same email, Lee linked to his corporate biography, which Google has cited as evidence Lee's work was not directly related to the work he would do at Google.

In addition, for the first time, the filing notes the size of Lee's pay package from Google. Microsoft said the search company agreed to compensation "worth in excess of $10m, including a $2.5m cash 'signing bonus' and another $1.5m cash payment after one year, a package referred to internally at Google as 'unprecedented'".

The document is part of Microsoft's argument as to why a judge should issue a preliminary injunction preventing Lee from taking a position at Google that would compete with his work at Microsoft until a trial can be held in the case. A hearing on the injunction request is planned for Tuesday in King County Superior Court in Seattle. The judge hearing the case has already granted Microsoft's request for a temporary restraining order preventing Lee from doing such work for Google until Tuesday's hearing.

A representative for Microsoft did not comment beyond the filing. A Google representative was not immediately available for comment.

Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com