BILL Gates is already at the top of every party planner’s list of must-have invitees.
On Wednesday afternoon, the major cable networks joined the scramble to line up Gates, since Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson had just handed down his decision to break the software giant into two companies.
It might have been reasonable for Gates to promise his first post-decision live interview to MSNBC, which is jointly run by Microsoft and NBC.
But Gates gave first dibs to CNBC instead – and anchors Maria Bartiromo, Ted David and Renay San Miguel – which got him on the air at 5:50 p.m. CNBC’s archrival, CNN, had to wait a full hour, until 6:50, before its live interview with Gates appeared.
Naturally, CNBC beat CNN in the ratings. For the 90 minutes following the judge’s decision, CNBC was watched in 522,000 households and CNN in 179,000.
As for MSNBC, Gates didn’t appear there until the following morning.