Google offered 470 million euros to the group of European cloud players under the banner of CISPE if it would continue to pursue its antitrust case against Microsoft. Just last week, CISPE reached an agreement with Microsoft regarding the company’s own services being offered more cheaply within their cloud platform Azure.
Microsoft paid CISPE a sum to settle the case it had filed with EU antitrust regulators. Microsoft also promised to make the necessary changes to software licenses to prevent future disputes.
Google complained that Microsoft was buying off the plaintiffs in this way, but now appears to have promised a sum of money itself—precisely to continue the case against Microsoft, reports Bloomberg and others.
It is unknown how much Microsoft is paying. An anonymous source now tells The Register that Google wanted to double that amount for the antitrust investigation to proceed. AWS would also contribute (6 million euros according to Bloomberg), even though being part of the CISPE consortium itself. Commenting on this matter, AWS said that as a member, it has made voluntary contributions to CISPE before and that this is common when participating in trade organizations.
Benefits spread over five years
The Google offer allegedly also included software benefits for five-years. In the end, CISPE weighed the offers of both players and chose Microsoft’s. Microsoft also promised to make a voluntary contribution of 10 million euros and make its services more widely available to local cloud infrastructures.
The big cloud players (Microsoft with Azure, Amazon with AWS and Google Cloud Platform) all want to capture a share of the European cloud market. In part to meet data residency requirements, they are opening data centers on the continent or expanding existing ones. This includes Google in Finland and Microsoft in Sweden. AWS is putting billions into infrastructure in Italy, Spain and Germany, among others.
Also read: Microsoft reaches deal with European cloud players on advancing Azure