LONDON — Google offered a group of cloud companies based in the European Union (EU) a package worth about 470 million euros ($688.5 million), in a failed attempt to derail their antitrust settlement with Microsoft.
The settlement freed the US software giant from a potentially costly EU case.
Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) last week ditched a complaint at the EU’s antitrust arm over Microsoft’s software licencing processes, after brokering a deal to get fairer access to the US firm’s technologies.
CISPE had previously argued that Microsoft made it too difficult for customers to change cloud providers by tying its business software to its Azure cloud services.
However, just days before the agreement was announced, Alphabet unit Google made a counteroffer designed to convince CISPE to maintain their EU complaint, as shown by confidential documents seen by Bloomberg and people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The package totalled approximately 455 million euros worth of software licences for Google’s cloud technology over five years as well as 14 million euros in cash.
“Amazon Web Services is a founding member of CISPE and has regularly made voluntary contributions to CISPE,” AWS said. “Enterprises across every major industry have long supported trade associations in similar ways.”
While Google has long trailed Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft in the cloud market, it’s begun to see impressive results.
After breaking even for the first time last year, Google’s cloud operation posted first-quarter profit of $900 million – well ahead of analysts’ projections of $672.4 million.
Google’s cloud unit is viewed as one of the firm’s best bets for growth as its core search advertising business matures.
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