It is not uncommon for big tech companies to get into legal disputes. Over recent years, Microsoft has taken to courtrooms against Apple, Amazon, and several other tech companies. One company Microsoft has not had legal tussles with is Google (Alphabet), but that may be about to change soon.
You see, the reason Microsoft and Google have avoided legal wrangling is not because they love each other so much. Instead, the two Big Tech giants have been participating in a legal truce. This six-year pact is about to come to an end, so the floodgates may open.
The two companies privately entered a truce that means no direct legal actions against the other, according to the Financial Times. Of course, over the years since that 2015 deal, the companies have traded plenty of barbs, but they have been reserved for marketing campaigns.
It seems the specifics of the truce meant any issues one company had with another would be dealt with internally. In other words, Microsoft and Google agreed not to rat each other out to regulators but instead try to resolve their conflicts privately.
Broken Deal
As well as ensuring issues did not become public and reach courtrooms, the agreement allowed Microsoft and Google to build a decent collaborative relationship. The Financial Times reports the renewal term for the agreement was April this year and both companies passed on the deal.
While it would be fun to think the companies ditched the deal so they could engage in all-out wars in courtrooms, the decision is more practical. Congress is currently putting more scrutiny and regulations on Big Tech.
It is hardly a good look to have a locked in agreement between two companies that they will aim to avoid regulatory action by working together behind the scenes.
Tip of the day: Thanks to the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) you can run complete Linux distributions within Windows 10. In our tutorial, we show you how to install Ubuntu or other Linux packages and how to activate the bash shell
