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Microsoft: The Next Investigations
Runt-Abu writes: "Some of the UK's top companies (and some of the not-so-top as well but hey...) are questioning Microsoft's policy on pricing. In an open letter to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry several of the top companies voiced concern at the cost of an extra £880m over a typical four-year investment cycle.
No one from Microsoft has commented at this time, given the current state of affairs it's highly likely many companies will not upgrade or seek alternative cheaper solutions." Basically, a large trade group is asking the British Office of Fair Trading (akin to the FTC in the U.S.) to investigate Microsoft's price increases. And Gogl writes: "It appears the attorneys general of 6 more states have voiced concern over Microsoft, particularly regarding the upcoming release of Windows XP. Microsoft and their allies claim that AOL-Time Warner was behind this, which AOL of course denies," pointing also to this piece on Microsoft's changing licensing costs.
As many of you know, I work for Microsoft in the Import/Export division, and I'm a member of the liason team that works directly with the UK division. While stories like this tend to generate buzz for the website that posts them, I can assure you it is a pure fabrication of the truth. The truth is that while there are additional UK surcharges we only put them their as a request of the British Parliment, and we then provide a non pro quo quid subsidy to counteract the charge, along with giving an actual discount.
This business practice, while on the surface seems a bit odd, was negotiated by the UK magistrate of foreign exports in good faith, I should add. We are not the bad guys here, we are simply doing what our customer wants us to do, and while we are happy that the UK government is interested in pushing our software onto the general public, I can assure you it is only because it's in the best interests of the British people, and is no way unethical or illegal. Of course even if the British were to pay an additional premium for the software, it would be negated by their increased productivity, thus making this a moot issue anyways.
What most people fail to understand is that accounting procedure are easy to misunderstand when you are dealing with foreign countries. I hope this clears things up.
All the best,
--Bob
I mean, really. Are they putting a gun to your head and saying "buy our next round of products or die Scum!"?
No they are not. So what's the problem? You don't want to pay? Then don't use their software.
It's as if some sheep genes are implanted into I.T. managers when they are hired.
Deleted
Hmm... Rob, cut the crap.