Microsoft may also criticize authorities with ‘legitimate concerns’

Microsoft is regularly the focus of competition authorities, and it was unthinkable that the Redmond company would single-handedly admit a mistake. But now you are even capable of self-criticism, which can also be seen in statements by Brad Smith.

Microsoft is the unscrupulous monopolist who blames everyone but themselves. That’s an image that still holds true today, but it doesn’t have much to do with reality – at least not to the same degree. Because the Microsoft of 2022 is still trying to get the best out of itself, but if you make a mistake, you openly admit it.

Discounts on Microsoft bundles

Microsoft president Brad Smith recently commented on the latest competition investigations, particularly allegations related to product bundling. More specifically, it concerns discounts that companies have received or received when they decide to bundle multiple Microsoft products and services. In other cases, customers have to pay even more if they don’t want to use Microsoft products with Azure, but with other providers like Amazon’s AWS or Google Cloud.

This has led Microsoft to competition investigations by the EU and the British authorities. and opposite Bloomberg Brad Smith was also self-critical: “There are certainly legitimate concerns. It’s very important for us to learn more and then make some changes.” Smith also acknowledged that there were “unintended consequences” of this business strategy and said Microsoft should “pay special attention to the unintended impact on European cloud providers”.

Microsoft should be “very interested” in reaching out to them directly and “really listening and understanding their concerns.” However, self-criticism also has its limits, because, at the same time, Smith also said that nothing prevents Amazon and Google from offering similar discounts. However, Smith doesn’t mention that Office’s dominance is an important key here.