Notes on Chapter 32

In Chapter 32, we wrapped up all the plot threads. Janet’s got founders’ stock at Netscape, Cassie’s stock at Palm is worth something after getting acquired at US Robotics, and she’s adopted a child at last. Len’s running a sector fund in the hottest sector going: the Internet. Len’s also kept his promise to be godfather to little Janine’s baptism, all Godfather jokes aside. (I guess he did settle all the family business, though.)

This is a good time to pay tribute to a fallen comrade, Heidi Buelow,

who was helping me write about the adoption process when she unexpectedly passed away. Heidi actually did adopt two children and raised them as a single mom. She’s not the model for Cassie, I hasten to add.

We also prefigure the 1998 antitrust trial of Microsoft, where David Boies did such a merciless job of dismantling Gates:

Dan (who’s me) and Matt are both at Oracle, and we were heavily involved in the anti-Microsoft alliance at the time, along with Sun, Oracle, IBM, and Netscape. Len, as our Zelig, was there in the meetings but no one noticed him! The movement to sue Microsoft for anti-trust was slowly gathering force, and Len was there but he can’t talk about it.