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Nadella heads to China to talk about monopoly

by on31 May 2016


We have two hotels on Tiananmen Square

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella is in Beijing this week to head off some possible problems with China's anti-trust investigation.

Nadella is expected to meet government officials to discuss the probe which is a little concerned that Microsoft has been playing monopoly behind the bamboo curtain.

Microsoft is one of several foreign firms to have come under scrutiny as China seeks to enforce a 2008 anti-monopoly law, which some critics say is being used to unfairly target overseas businesses.

Revenues earned in the country for the firm also have come under pressure, as China seeks to replace western tech products with those manufactured locally.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), one of China's anti-monopoly regulators, conducted raids on Microsoft in mid-2014.

The investigation relates to compatibility, bundle sales, and file verification issues related to Windows and Office software, according to Microsoft.

Nadella promised to cooperate fully with authorities in their investigation. But it seems that the problems have not gone away. SAIC said in January that it had requested Microsoft to explain some issues that came to the fore from digital data obtained as part of an anti-trust probe.

A spokesman for Microsoft said that Nadella was meeting with government officials attending a Microsoft Developer day and a Tsinghua Management School event.

He is a member of the advisory board of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, which counts President Xi Jinping among its alumni.

 

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