Microsoft, Google End Regulatory Disputes--Update
April 22 2016 - 11:39AM
Dow Jones News
By Stephen Fidler and Sam Schechner
BRUSSELS -- Microsoft Corp. and Google parent Alphabet Inc.
agreed to end their yearslong regulatory battles around the world,
reflecting the changing relationship between the tech giants.
Microsoft said the move reflected "our changing legal
priorities," adding that the two companies would "continue to focus
on competing vigorously for business and for customers."
Microsoft has been a prominent complainant about Google to both
U.S. and European Union antitrust regulators. In the EU, its
complaints to the European Commission were related to the search
giant's practices related to advertising and a YouTube app.
A Google spokesman said the move to drop regulatory complaints
followed the decision last year to dismiss patent-related lawsuits
between the two companies.
"Our companies compete vigorously, but we want to do so on the
merits of our products, not in legal proceedings," the spokesman
said.
According to a person familiar with the matter, the two
companies have agreed to talk to each other first in the future
before taking any problems to regulators.
The change reflects the shift in approach that followed
Microsoft's 2014 appointment of Satya Nadella as its new chief
executive. Mr. Nadella has taken a less combative stance than his
predecessor Steve Ballmer, according to a person familiar with the
matter.
"The relationship between the two companies has changed," the
person said, adding that "Nadella has made most of the
difference."
Microsoft's business priorities also have changed, among other
things, with the growth of cloud computing.
The relationship between the two companies began publicly to
thaw last year as they worked together to settle their long-running
patent war involving roughly 20 pending lawsuits, said a person
close to Google.
Microsoft also resigned from FairSearch, a group of digital
companies -- including Nokia Corp. and Oracle Corp. -- that are
prominent Google complainants. In addition, the software maker has
discouraged ICOMP, another lobby group of which it was a member,
from pursuing Google.
Microsoft's retreat removes a Google adversary that had spent
millions trying to make sure Google faced the same regulatory
wringer that it had in previous decades. Microsoft had filed
complaints against Google and funded industry groups aimed at
encouraging regulators to go after Google.
Microsoft was long itself in the EU's crosshairs. A decade and a
half of antitrust litigation from the commission led to fines
totaling EUR2.2 billion against Microsoft, in a series of
complaints that spanned everything from the interoperability of
Microsoft's servers to the bundling of its media player and Web
browser with its operating system.
--Natalia Drozdiak contributed to this article.
Write to Stephen Fidler at stephen.fidler@wsj.com and Sam
Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 22, 2016 11:24 ET (15:24 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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