5 fascinating tech rivalries of our time

abiola

October 20, 2017 4:33 PM

Egos are bound to be teased and bad blood 'spilling' between some of the most powerful men in tech.

The rivalries between founders and CEOs of the most valuable tech companies dates could be said to be as old as time itself.

But we take a look at the eras of the 80s and 90s and right into the millenial years.

The rivalries some would argue are healthy for the industry while some would see it as petty.

These are 5 of the most recorded tech rivalries of our time.

Jack Dorsey (Twitter) vs Kevin Systrom (Instagram)

Jack and his Twitter team had tabled down a bid to buy Instagram for $500million but Instagram’s Kevin Systrom had other plans. A whole lot of Silicon Valley investors were also interested in the image sharing network but Systrom sold to Zuckerberg’s Facebook.

Dorsey had to find out from an employee at work that Zuckerberg had sealed the deal with Systrom for more than $730 in cash and stock

Since that day Jack has not been in good terms with Kevin Systrom and by extension between Dorsey and Zuckerberg.

Michael Dell (Dell) vs Steve Jobs (Apple)

This was quite a direct ‘jab’ at Michael Dell who dared to say in the press that Apple should go ahead and ‘close shop’ as the company was not doing well financially at the time.

Dell said if he were Apple CEO “he would shut it down and give the money back to shareholders,” Steve Jobs in 1997 who expressed his thoughts of Michael’s comment as being rude during his addressing of Apple’s employees about the state of the company.

Jobs showcased a Muhammed Ali led ad to tell Michael that Apple was coming for Dell.

Steve Jobs (Apple) vs Bill Gates (Microsoft)

The phenomenal Jobs and Gates had their fair share of ‘corporate wars’ and it’s a no-brainer to see why. Bill Gates’ Microsoft was up in the sky ‘grabbing the balls’ of all PC users. Virtually every one was using a Windows Operating system on their PC.

However, Jobs who was more of a design specialist insulted Bill Gates, called ‘him a “boring” person with "no taste," who "never invented anything" and "shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas."

Evan Spiegel (Snapchat) vs Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)

Zuckerberg must definitely be owning the crown for the most successful imitator of all time.

The Facebook CEO has done a good job of ‘cloning’ Spiegel’s Snapchat and naturally this would draw some bad blood between the two.

He even tried to buy out Spiegel’s Snapchat but was ungraciously turned down by the Snapchat boss.

Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) vs Larry Page/Sergey Brin (Google/YouTube)

From the battle to be the go-to video hub, and Google investing in Facebook’s rivals Snapchat, the battle here is getting even stiffer by the day.

abiola