Google (GOOG) engineering director Mark Lucovsky will quit the company and join VMware, TechCrunch reports.

The news is a bit ironic because when Google hired Mark from Microsoft (MSFT) in 2004, it angered Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer so much that he threw a chair and called Google CEO Eric Schmidt "a fucking pussy."

We know this because Mark gave testimony about it in 2005.

Prior to joining Google, I set up a meeting on or about November 11, 2004 with Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss my planned departure....At some point in the conversation Mr. Ballmer said: "Just tell me it's not Google." I told him it was Google.



At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Google." ....

Thereafter, Mr. Ballmer resumed trying to persuade me to stay....Among other things, Mr. Ballmer told me that "Google's not a real company. It's a house of cards."

Mark's departure is just the latest in a long line of top executives, lawyers and engineers to quit the company this year.

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