Dive Brief:
- Microsoft and Google have reportedly ended their multi-year global regulatory fight.
- The companies say they plan to spend less time fighting each other and more time focusing on their core businesses.
- According to Wall Street Journal sources familiar with the matter, the two companies have agreed to talk to each other first before taking any problems to regulators.
Dive Insight:
Microsoft said the move reflects their "changing legal priorities." Last year, the two companies decided to drop approximately 20 patent-related lawsuits, and they now say they’ll drop the regulatory complaints, too.
Microsoft had complained about Google to both U.S. and European Union antitrust regulators for years. Microsoft also funded industry groups such as FairSearch aimed at encouraging regulators to go after Google. But Microsoft has had a change of heart.
"Our companies compete vigorously, but we want to do so on the merits of our products, not in legal proceedings,” a Google spokesperson said.
Microsoft became much less aggressive overall after its 2014 appointment of Satya Nadella as its CEO. Nadella has worked to make the company more cooperative and open, which now includes promoting a friendlier relationship with Google.
"The relationship between the two companies has changed," a person familiar with the matter said, according to Nasdaq. "Nadella has made most of the difference."
The change also has a lot to do with Microsoft’s changing business priorities. The company also has its hands full with the recent lawsuit against the U.S. government over data searches.
