Microsoft Fights Dirty to Win African Contracts

Hiring the relatives of government officials, offering kickbacks of up to $400,000, locking small nations into multi-year contracts. No this isn’t a tale of the Mafia, it’s the story of Microsoft’s sales team in Africa…

In Nigeria, Microsoft proposed paying $400,000 last year under a joint-marketing agreement to a government contractor it was trying to persuade to replace Linux with Windows on thousands of school laptops. The contractor’s former chief executive describes the proposal as an incentive to make the switch — an interpretation Microsoft denies. In Namibia and Nigeria, where it has sought government contracts, the company hired family members of government officials. Microsoft says they were qualified.

Read the full revealing article here.