Just How Powerful is Microsoft?

I was helping run an errand for Marketsync yesterday at Microsoft's Conference Center, one of the few buildings at Microsoft I'd never been in before. At the front of the building where a partner conference was to be held later that day, I was astonished to see that Microsoft had a piece of the Berlin Wall in their Conference Center lobby.

Wait, that's understating the fact. It wasn't a piece, or a chunk. It was an entire section. Easily the width of two or three people, and was just about full height. The resources and diplomatic negotiation that must have had to happen to make that possible just baffle me. As it turns out, it was a gift from Daimler Benz AG (now DaimlerChrysler), and is part of the Microsoft Art Collection. That's yet another statement that I have a difficult time fathoming.

I wish I could have taken a picture, but I left my new camera phone behind at the office so it wouldn't have gotten damaged, but I think it wouldn't have been appropriate at the time anyway.

Technorati tags: Microsoft, Berlin Wall, DaimlerChrysler