But the longer this goes on with radio silence from the board in the face of massive pressure, the more likely I believe it is that something detrimental to Altman’s character is going to come out that’s going to make the decision seem like the obvious one and suddenly Nadella won’t look like such a genius.
In the age of Elizabeth Holmes, Adam Neumann, SBF and Trevor Milton I’m surprised there aren’t more people just a tad distrusting.
Yet Mr Nadella stands with Mr. Altman.
What if he thinks his position and company is so strong it can withstand any web of deceit Altman can weave? There is, after all, so much money to be made here it matters even on a Microsoft scale.
I think people are so tempted to contrive these multilevel conspiracy theories where Nadella and Altman are thinking many moves ahead while the board is just a slow moving group of idiots when the much simpler explanation is they are desperately trying to restore confidence. I think the main tell on this besides what was already said was Nadella making the announcement before market open- this is a guy feeling major pressure from shareholders about the strategy.
The problem with that though is that he is making impulsive decisions with imperfect information and taking major reputation risk in the process.