At least so far. Ted is outspoken, off the cuff and doesn't care who he offends. It's a little quicker paced, a little more impersonal. It's a place that indulges the egos of software strongmen like Larry Ellison and Tom Siebel. When a company's stock plummets, there isn't widespread panic, nor is there a front-page epitaph.
People there understand that the technology market has a manic-depressive streak.
Ironically, Atlanta is probably better suited than California to incubate the companies of the future, but doesn't realize it yet, says Benn Konsynski, a professor of business administration at Emory University. In the tradition of the South, it's not a chest-pounding, celebratory kind of place that will inflate its worth. On the contrary, it has an inferiority complex. Who knows, maybe one of these icons will give one of these enfants terribles an offer they can't refuse. Kalakota is convinced the synergies are in place for such an event.