The Guardian: Microsoft Fights for Taxpayers’ £100m

“Software group Microsoft is fighting to keep its business with
the British government–worth £100m a year–in the face of a
growing preference for ‘free’ open source software in public sector
IT projects.

“Peter Gershon, head of the Treasury’s Office of Government
Commerce, has announced plans to re-open negotiations with the
group over a bulk buying agreement signed in March 2002. The
memorandum of understanding was expected to save £100m over
three years, but government departments have been slower than
expected in taking it up.

“Mr Gershon is now using competition from open source suppliers
such as IBM and Sun to pressure Microsoft to improve its
terms…”

Complete Story