I read it as an attempt to get press on the coattails of his competitors and the stance as intending to seem "scrappy". Color me an optimist but I don't think the intent was to spew bile.
Sridhar isn't doing anything different, he's forcing people to pick a side, and guess what ... it usually works.
On David vs Goliath, Microsoft, Google & Salesforce are just 3 of the companies we compete with.