How Microsoft competes

The EU's top politician, José Barroso, was in Prague yesterday to talk about nuclear power. Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, was in town to talk about Microsoft. The value of their public remarks was about the same - almost zero - but the Czech media gave at least 20 times more space to Ballmer than to Barroso. It's sad to see how Microsoft's public-affairs team manipulates impressionable Czech journalists. Ballmer didn't have to field a single question about the record antitrust fine his company received from the EU. Nor did anyone ask how competitive the bidding was for the multibillion-crown software deal Microsoft is about to sign with Interior Minister Ivan Langer. Nor did anyone marvel at how the CR can ask Jan Mühlfeit of Microsoft - of all companies - to advise on competitiveness during the CR's rotating EU presidency. Readers of HN did learn from Ballmer that CEE countries are "much more open to modern technologies" than the U.S. or W. Europe. No doubt because they still play by rules that Microsoft understands.