Ballmer really hates Google

A court transcript in the ongoing battle between Microsoft and Google has recorded the scene of Steve Ballmer's office as he found out that one of his best men had been poached by Google.

The man in question was Mark Lukovsky, and his statement is being given a case brought by Microsoft against another former employee, Kai-Fu Lee, who has also jumped ship to Google. Microsoft say that Lee is breaching an anti-competition agreement in his contract. Google disagree.

Lukovsky says that when he told Ballmer he was going to Google, Ballmer threw a chair across the room and launched into a tirade against Eric Schmidt, his opposite number at Google.

Ballmer is alleged to have said "******* Eric Schmidt is a ******* *****. I'm going to ******* bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to ******* kill Google."

Ahem. You can read the version without the stars over at the report source, John Battelle's Search Blog.

Schmidt has formerly worked at Sun, a big Microsoft competitor in the server space.

Ballmer is known for being a fairly odd, if colourful chap (thanks Anandtech).

The case rolls on. Got some thoughts? Let us know over in the forums.