Microsoft and Google end a six-year truce in legal battles

Microsoft and Google have ended a nearly six-year truce to prevent an open war between Big Tech’s rivals, paving the way for a direct conflict as regulators gain barriers to competition between major U.S. technology groups.

Huge software and internet searches an unusual treaty in 2015 to end the ongoing struggle in the courts and in regulators around the world. Sundar Pichai became CEO of Google and Satya Nadella took over the leadership of Microsoft shortly after it was created.

Companies settled litigation and agreed not to oppose or complain to each other with regulators without first attempting to resolve top-level disagreements internally, according to two people who knew the conditions.

The treaty also sought to bring about cooperation areas of mutual business interest – Although people around the two companies have maintained that they have done nothing to smooth out direct competition in the markets, including cloud computing and online productivity applications.

The agreement to abandon some weapons used by technology groups against each other raised questions about the impact it had on competing in certain places.

The tricks Microsoft played on Google hurt the entire industry, including Microsoft

“It’s always a bit confusing to see direct competitors working on private agreements,” Eric Goldman, a law professor at the University of Santa Clara, said of the 2015 treaty. However, he said the end of the “dirty tricks” used by both sides is the way to end the destructive competition without necessarily undermining the competition.

“The tricks Microsoft was playing on Google were hurting the entire industry, including Microsoft,” Goldman added.

In one of his most notorious charges, the software company “made some advertisements for attacks called”Scroogled“Google accused him of using techniques to increase his profits by” fucking “his users.

According to people familiar with the situation, it closed in mid-April when both sides decided not to renew. The decision to let it expire came regulators around the world try to root out high-tech companies and challenge practices that may prevent more open competition.

Renewed signs of competition appeared to be pouring back into public clashes. Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, appeared against Google threatens to withdraw search service from Australia instead of enforcing law paid for by news publishers for content, in testimony before Congress in March.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg TV, Smith also complained that Google had “turned a deaf ear” to Microsoft’s request. major digital advertising services interacting with other companies, something that would make the industry more competitive.

The advertising issue that appears there that Colorado lawsuit and several other U.S. states filed lawsuits against Google in December. Microsoft would not comment on whether it put pressure on regulators on the issue.

Some people inside Microsoft believed the pact was more beneficial for Google than for the software company, according to a person who knows the company’s thinking.

Microsoft’s willingness to remove Google’s fire also came at a time when the search company’s business practices were undergoing more regulatory scrutiny around the world. Microsoft, meanwhile, has not appeared in antitrust research on Big Tech groups, even though it became a second-tier technology company after Apple last week. Valued at more than $ 2 million.

However, attempts to forge closer partnerships between companies have not brought some of the advantages that Microsoft sought. These include finding ways to run mobile apps built on Windows personal computers for Google’s Android operating system – something that would help Microsoft fix some of the weaknesses in the phone industry and provide a refuge against Apple.