Last week, at a day-long get-to-know-you session that Microsoft Corp. hosted for venture capitalists, one attendee told a fable in which she compared Microsoft to a snake and asked Microsoft executives to respond. And in an on-the-spot audience poll, only 40 percent of the attendees agreed that the Redmond, Wash., software company would make a good partner for the fledgling companies in their investment portfolios.

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