"Microsoft took nearly three decades to grow to 75,000 people, while Google has become a very large company in a fraction of that time.

"They are trying to double in a year," Ballmer told a crowd of Stanford Graduate School of Business students on Thursday. "That's insane in my opinion."

"Ballmer said there are basically four stages in business: coming up with an idea, getting it to critical mass, milking it financially and then finding a new idea.

"Google is in the part of the cycle where they are milking," Ballmer said, acknowledging that's a fun stage. "That was the '90s for us...or I would say the '80s and '90s."

[news.com.com...]