From: "Joe Barr" 

http://expatica.com/germany.asp?pad=190,205,&item_id=31422

Battle heats up Munich software deal

21 May 2003

MUNICH ƒ “ In a battle heating up over a software deal for the city
administration of Munich, US giant Microsoft has lowered its price offer by
15 per cent in order to prevent the city switching to Linux, Financial
Times Deutschland (FTD) reported Wednesday.

FTD cited a city council spokeswoman as saying that the council was now
leaning to choose Microsoft over Linux. The council is to make a decision
May 28.

If chosen, Microsoft would provide the software for some 16,000 computers
in the Munich city administration, with FTD putting the value of the deal
in the double-digit millions of euros.

Munich's city administration was reportedly leaning towards the Linux
offer, when Microsoft came forward to improve on its own offer, FTD said.

It said that in early April, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer cut
short a skiing holiday in Switzerland in order to go to Munich for talks
with Lord Mayor Christian Ude to try to stop the city from choosing Linux.

"What else can you offer?" Ude kept asking Ballmer, trying to
squeeze further concessions from Microsoft, the paper cited sources as
saying about the meeting.

In the end, Microsoft promised to reduce by 15 percent the price on its
original offer in order to undercut the Linux bid, FTD said. Later,
Microsoft put out the word to other German communal administrations that
they, too, could expect price rebates.

But the battle is not yet over, with the paper saying that Linux is now
preparing a new offer of its own.

The stakes in the battle over Munich are high, the FTD noted. If it
switched to Linux, Munich would be the first major German city to do so and
could pave the way for other cities to make the switch, something which
Microsoft aims to prevent, especially after the German parliament, the
Bundestag, has decided to use Linux.


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