Two of the largest tech companies in the world have ended a long-running agreement. Microsoft and Google made their 2015 agreement to end the constant litigation between them. It has mostly worked well. It leaves outsiders wondering what next.
The pact was terminated in April 2021, and both companies have decided to end the agreement.
Microsoft and Google End Six-Year Truce
The unusual agreement between the companies stipulated that they would resolve any disagreements at the highest possible level and not resort to formal complaints or regulators.
According to the Financial Times, Microsoft and Google also agreed to cooperate in areas of mutual interest such as security or quantum computing.
The truce was viewed as a way for companies to continue competing without resorting to expensive and lengthy legal battles in every instance of direct competition. According to people in the know, Microsoft and Google have used “dirty tricks” commercially to harm each other.
Signs that the truce has been forgotten are already evident, as Microsoft and Google clash over Australia’s controversial media laws, leading to Google declaring that Microsoft was reverting to its old ways.
Why Are Microsoft and Google Ending Their Truce?
Investigators are raising the stakes even though they have spent more than half a century trying to keep their business under the radar of regulators.
It is not surprising that two of the largest tech companies in the world are working together to stop regulator intrusion against a backdrop of global regulators investigating anticompetition and monopolistic practices.
Microsoft is not as under the spotlight as its Big Tech rivals in Google, Apple, and Amazon. Microsoft lost antitrust suits in the early 2000s. This is why the company has tried harder to stay out of the spotlight and away from regulators.
The US is introducing several antitrust laws that specifically target the grip Big Tech holds on global technology. It remains to be seen how successful these laws will be.
However, it is evident that governments worldwide are sick of these anti-competitive practices and that the time is now to change.
