[FYI] "For Microsoft, market dominance doesn't seem enough"

["Axel H Horns" <axel.h.horns@gmx.net>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/30715.html

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MS 'slush' fund provides big discounts to stop Linux - email  

By John Lettice  

Posted: 15/05/2003 at 10:27 GMT  

Microsoft's head of worldwide sales last summer circulated a 'stop 
Linux at any price' email to sales execs and senior company 
executives, including Steve Ballmer, Jim Allchin and Jeff Raikes. 
According to the International Herald Tribune, which has seen the 
email, Orlando Ayala was aiming to block Linux's progress in 
government. "Under NO circumstances lose against Linux," he said, 
saying that in cases where the deal involved governments or large 
institutions there was a special fund available which could be used 
to offer large discounts, or even to give Microsoft software away.  

The existence of what the casual observer might term a slush fund is 
confirmed in an IHT interview with Microsoft EMEA chairman Jean-
Philippe Courtois, who defends it as "part of a strategy to be 
'competitive' and 'relevant' in the market for big government and 
educational deals." Microsoft is known to be particularly concerned 
about the prospect of an open source avalanche engulfing its European 
government operations, and the likely European focus of the 'get 
Linux' operations is confirmed by another email obtained by the IHT, 
from outside legal counsel.  

[...]

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See also

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,druck-248803,00.html

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SPIEGEL ONLINE - 15. Mai 2003, 15:57
URL: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,248803,00.html

Microsoft
 
Geheimfonds für Anti-Linux-Discount

Microsoft hat einem Zeitungsbericht zufolge einen Spezialfonds 
eingerichtet, um Preiskriege gegen die Konkurrenz zu finanzieren. Der 
Konzern will damit offenbar vor allem verhindern, dass Linux als 
Server-Software weitere Anhänger gewinnt. 

[...]

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See also

http://www.iht.com/articles/96369.html

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For Microsoft, market dominance doesn't seem enough
 
Thomas Fuller/IHT IHT

Thursday, May 15, 2003

Discounts for biggest users are aimed at keeping software rivals at 
bay
 
BRUSSELS More than 90 percent of the world's personal computers run 
on Microsoft software. For Orlando Ayala, that was not enough.

Last summer, Ayala, then the top sales executive at Microsoft Corp., 
sent an e-mail message titled "Microsoft Confidential" to senior 
managers laying out a strategy to dissuade governments around the 
world from choosing cheaper alternatives to the ubiquitous Windows 
operating system.

[...]

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