In 2005 , Mark Lucovsky alleged in a sworn statement to a Washington state court that Ballmer became enraged upon hearing that Lucovsky was about to leave Microsoft for Google , picked up his chair , and threw it across his office , and that , referring to Google CEO Eric Schmidt ( who previously worked for competitors Sun and Novell ) , Ballmer vowed to `` kill Google . ''
In 2005 , Mark Lucovsky said in a sworn statement to a Washington state court that Ballmer became very angry upon hearing that Lucovsky was going to leave Microsoft for Google , picked up his chair , and threw it across his office .