Politics & Power Quote by Jim Barksdale

"I want my testimony to stand on that point. But I would point out that Zona Research Inc. showed we have increased market share among business users, educational users, and government users over the past several months - and that's more recent than the IDC report"

Jim Barksdale, Businessman

About this Quote

Barksdale is doing courtroom judo: he plants his flag on a narrow claim ("my testimony to stand on that point") while immediately widening the frame to friendlier terrain. The first sentence is a lawyerly act of self-discipline, signaling credibility and control. He’s not riffing, he’s staking a position that can survive cross-examination. Then comes the pivot: not denying the unfavorable metric outright, but demoting it by upgrading the timeline.

The real contest here isn’t market share; it’s whose data gets to define reality. By invoking Zona Research Inc. against IDC, Barksdale isn’t just offering competing numbers. He’s reminding the listener that market truth is negotiable, built from reports, categories, and, crucially, recency. "Over the past several months" is a quiet weapon: it implies momentum, a narrative arc, a company turning the corner. "More recent than the IDC report" is an elegant insult dressed as a footnote, suggesting the opposition is arguing from stale information.

Notice the segmentation: business, education, government. That’s not accidental; those are high-status, institutional buyers whose adoption reads as legitimacy. It’s also a way to dodge the blunt force of overall consumer share by highlighting constituencies that matter in antitrust and enterprise narratives. In subtext, Barksdale is telling regulators and investors: judge us by the markets that confer power and permanence, and by the present tense, not last quarter’s obituary.

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Jim Barksdale

Jim Barksdale (born January 24, 1943) is a Businessman from USA.

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