Microsoft strikes back against Google: "We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no."

 

I love the phrase "Oh snap!" I'm not really sure why, but I do. I've been thinking about it all night after reading that epic rant from Google's David Drummond slamming Microsoft, Apple and others for their "anti-competitive" patent bids as of late. Well if you're gonna point fingers and name names, you'd better be ready to take some heat in return. Unfortunately for Drummond, that's exactly what many attorneys who worked for Microsoft on the bids are doing.

First up was a tweet from Brad Smith, Microsoft's General Counsel, claiming that Google opted out of joining their consortium to buy Novell patents.

Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no.

That's a pretty interesting claim, but then it gets even better. Frank Shaw, the lead corporate communications at Microsoft, uploaded a screenshot of an email sent to Brad Smith in October 2010 which was written by Kent Walker, the Senior Vice President & General Counsel at Google. The email reads (with emphasized part in bold):

Brad--
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you -- I came down with a 24-hour bug on the way back from San Antonio. After talking with people here, it sounds as though for various reasons a joint bid wouldn't be advisable for us on this one. But I appreciate your flagging it, and we're open to discussing other similar opportunities in the future.

I hope the rest of your travels go well, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.
--Kent

Well, it looks like Drummond is going to be in hot water for this. Can I say it? I think it's appropriate, so I'm just gonna go ahead and say it.

Oh snap!

Via: WPCentral
Source: Brad Smith (@BradSmi), Frank Shaw (@fxshaw)