Gates tried to Blackmail Danish Government

mocm writes "The Inquirer has a story about how Bill Gates tried to pressure the Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen into accepting the European Union's proposed directive on software patents by threating to terminate the 800 jobs at Navision, which had been acquired by Microsoft." Update: 02/16 00:41 GMT by T : cfelde points out a CNET story which says that "The European vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions, Klaus Holse Andersen, denied on Tuesday that the jobs at Navision were ever at risk." Believe who you'd like.

Comments

Not blackmail

[loudmax]

That would be extortion, not blackmail.

Re:Not blackmail

[phasm42]

You left out the rest of the sentence: [blockquote]2 a : extortion or coercion by threats especially of public exposure or criminal prosecution b : the payment that is extorted[/blockquote] Blackmail is a particular kind of extortion.

Here's another article...

[MadMoses]

...from heise.de (in German).

SOP

[fermion]

this has become standard, at least in the US. Corporations play one state against the other to gain tax breaks, increase dole payments, and other entitlements. These welfare subsidies can net a several hundred dollars of government payments per anticipated position.

Also covered by Groklaw

[John_Sauter]

Note that this story is also being covered by Groklaw, with some good commentary by Pamela Jones.
John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)

Blackmail or Extortion

[kenthorvath]

Is there a difference between blackmail and extortion?

According to dictionary.com, blackmail is defined as the extortion of money or something else of value from a person by the threat of exposing a criminal act or discreditable information.

Whereas extortion is defined as the Illegal use of one's official position or powers to obtain property, funds, or patronage.

Is it not extortion that has occured here?

Re:Blackmail or Extortion

[will_die]

It is neither.
It is definatly not blackmail, since there is no criminal act or discreditable information.
It is not extortion because the act of close the office and firing the people would not be illegal. Also it was not made in private.
It is definatly arm twisting or making a threating comment. Not sure how illegal that would be.

Backfire!

[redelm]

... and if I and others decide to detest M$ over a hostile action, that too is our right. The separation of business and politics is a much bigger deal in the EU than in the US. Rightfully so IMHO. M$ just lost cred bigtime, especially if this is widely reported.

As for Martha, had she tried those stunts, I'm sure that the DoJ would be happy to add bribery (maybe extortion) charges and her shareholders would've sued her to powder. There is supposed to be separation between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of govt in the US. And an independant judiciary (incl prosecutors) most everywhere else.

Re:Danish Government has Tough Decision

[KrunZ]

The little town (Vedbæk) is one of the richest (http://hjem.get2net.dk/rungsted.roklub/huse_langs _stranden2.htm) towns in Denmark. It was one of the richest before Microsoft entered (http://www.microsoft.com/danmark/jobs/vedbak.asp) , it was one of the richest before the company (http://www.sinca.com/noticia_aquiere_navision.htm l) that Microsoft bought started, and it will remain one of the richest after Microsofts leaves.

Re:Obligatory Simpsons Scene

[displaced80]

Nope -- we have ticks :)

Tickboxes, Tickmarks are just 'ticks'.

Amongst programmers, 'checkboxes' is understood. But if I were to tell a user to put a check in that checkbox, I'd get an odd look.

Although we do have checklists, which (oddly) are usually ticked-off. Even though the person doing the ticking would announce 'Check!'. Checkpoints are indeed 'check'points, unless you're referring to those cheque-cashing (no, not caching) shops which sometimes call themselves 'Chequepoints'.

Schoolkids will get ticks on their work, not checks.

And yes -- flashlights are torches. It's 99.9% certain that the person hearing the word will understand whether or not it's of the 'flaming' variety, based on context. That other 0.1% of the time can be quite funny/dangerous/deadly. But only to D&D players who take things too far.

Fogh denies...

[Maskedman]

Our prime minister has officially denied that Bill Gates supposedly "threatened" him.

Translation of Danish article

[ahoset]

This is a translation of the article at Børsen.

The founder of the world's largest software development company, Bill Gates, is now ready to close Navision in Denmark and move the approximately 800 developers behind Denmark's largest software success to USA.

This was made clear by the Microsoft boss when he met with prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, minister of economy and business Bendt Bendtsen, and the minister of science Helge Sander in November.

The threat may become reality if parts of the IT business succeed in blocking a disputed EU directive about software patents that means the world for Microsoft to have passed. Approval of directive has repeatedly been delayed by the opponents' effective lobbying.

"If I am to maintain my development center in Denmark, the rights question must be settled. Otherwise I will move it to USA, where I can protect my rights," Bill Gates said according to Microsoft's chief legal counsel Marianne Wier, who also took part in the meeting with Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Bill Gates acquired the Danish development department that is based on the fusion of the two IT companies Navision and Damgaard for about 12 billion kroner [approx $2.1 Bn] in 2002.

It has not been possible to get prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to elaborate on how he reacted to the strong message from Bill Gates.

Not quite as big a threat in Denmark

[hung_himself]

It's not the US...

Losing your job doesn't mean risking bankruptcy if you become sick and there are very generous social programs in Denmark to ease the transition from one job to another. I'm not saying being laid off is not a big deal but it is lower on the Richter scale. So because the Danes are less dependent on corporate largesse, they can also more easily ignore this type of corporate blackmail (albeit at the cost of higher taxes for some...)

CORRECTION (Oh dear)

[born_to_live_forever]

It took me about ten seconds after posting for a little niggling voice at the back of my mind to tell me that I'd better check my facts. The following paragraph in my preceding post is completely wrong:

The "true hero", as such, of the evacuation was not, in fact, a Dane - it was SS-Obergruppenführer Dr. Werner Best, the German administrator in charge of "cooperation" with the Danish government. When he learned of the plan to seize the Danish Jews (who had previously been left alone, to avoid antagonizing the Danes), he surreptitiously gave warning to his Danish contacts, who passed the word along. The entire evacuation operation was carried out largely without any government participation. I know it seems strange, even fantastic, to consider an SS man the "hero" of any situation - but nevertheless, such is the case.

Turns out, my memory had played a trick on me and I'd swapped a couple of names. True to the classic image of SS men, Werner Best was not a good guy. In fact, he was the individual who recommended implementing the "resolution of the Jewish problem in Denmark". Although his overall behaviour with regard to occupied Denmark was lenient, he certainly was not a good guy.

The actual hero of the day was Georg Duckwitz, of the German Embassy in Copenhagen. He was responsible for matters dealing with shipping, and he gave warning of the impending operation to Danish contacts.

*sigh*

Oh well, I suppose that mess-up sort of undermines my credibility - though I do think that I should get credit for issuing an immediate correction.

In any case, this little historical quibble has no bearing on the actual matter of Fogh Rasmussen's likely response to MS strong-arm tactics. But then again, you probably don't need me to tell you that politicians tend to cave in to pressure from big business...