Microsoft to Google: Who cares who squealed to the EU? Deal with it.
In a blog post today, Microsoft took exception about being on the receiving end of some finger-pointing that surrounds the European Union's new investigation into Google's power over the advertising industry.
Earlier this week, Google posted a blog entry that essentially named Microsoft as the driving force behind the EU investigation. But then Microsoft fired back with its own entry that 1) basically says they are not the driving force and 2) that even if they were, so what? Competitors are usually the ones who complain about what they consider to be unfair competitive actions.
Dave Heiner - the author of the blog post - ought to know. He's been Chief Competition Officer at Microsoft since 1994 and has seen his share of regulatory scrutiny.
Politics aside, the back-and-forth schoolyard - er, blogosphere - bickering over who told and who didn't really shouldn't matter. It won't change the fact that regulators found enough of a there there to launch an investigation. And rest assured that the investigation won't come to a close overnight.
So now that the blog posts have gone up and both sides have had their say, it's time to step to the side and let the EU do its thing.
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