Bartz’s (S)mash Note to Ballmer: The Photographic Proof
by Kara Swisher
Posted on May 29, 2009 at 3:07 PM PT
If a search and advertising partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft is ever struck, perhaps a little CEO-to-CEO note-passing should get some credit.
Yesterday, we wrote about the purple Post-It that Bartz passed to Ballmer via the makeup person in the D: All Things Digital Green Room.
Both Bartz and Ballmer were interviewed onstage at D7 this past week, and were asked about the talks, which ended yesterday in Carlsbad, Calif.
BoomTown also reported that Ballmer and Bartz, as well as key deal execs at both Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT), had met in person once again about such a partnership at the conference.
Onstage, Ballmer dodged the question about meeting, joking about the sticky note Bartz had left for him.
That Post-It was stuck in a D7 program book that is kept by Dawn Griffith, our most excellent makeup person for all seven of the conferences.
Over the years, Griffith has asked all D7 speakers to sign programs next to their bios and Wall Street Journal-style dot drawings.
This year, Bartz and Ballmer shared a page in the book.
Bartz spoke on Wednesday morning and put the note below Ballmer’s picture, knowing he’d sign the program when getting his makeup done for his Thursday morning appearance.
And, not surprisingly for Bartz, it was a tough-love poem–although, thankfully, there is no cursing.
Here’s the image of the note (click on it once to make it larger), which reads:
“Steve,
Forget it
Won’t help
Ha
Carol”
