July 18, 2007 -- MAYBE greed is good, as Gordon Gekko said in "Wall Street," but no one likes to be called "greedy." So foreheads flexed last Thursday in Sun Valley, Idaho, when Sony honcho Sir Howard Stringer used that word to describe Apple chairman Steve Jobs. Stringer was part of a panel at the Allen & Co. media mogul powwow with Barry Diller (IAC), Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Sergey Brin (Google), discussing how technology has changed the way people get their entertainment and news.
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According to one audience member, Stringer said it's funny that Jobs accuses record companies of greed because they want to get paid for music downloads. Stringer said Jobs, who just launched the iPhone, is the "greedy" one because he wants a world where only he makes money. Moderator Anderson Cooper suddenly changed the subject, but Diller said, "Anderson, you're missing something here, Howard Stringer just called Steve Jobs greedy." But when Cooper went back to Stringer, the Sony boss diplomatically backed off.
