Microsoft recently announced that it is investing $1.7 billion in India’s technology infrastructure and development capabilities (meaning in the smart people over there – not exactly a scarce resource either).
It isn’t Microsoft’s first investment in India, but it comes at an interesting time for the company. They have been prodded for years on their monopolistic status in the tech community – and despite reaching a settlement on many of those issues with the US, the littany of foriegn countries slapping them in the face still hasn’t stopped. Many of the talented folks from Redmond have moved on to bigger and better things not just from the lower levels. The open source community rolls out viable options to their products on a minute by minute basis. Microsoft needs fresh competitive advantages.
They have a clue, others have the same, and the concept is already moving beyond pure tech.
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