This was Ballmer's fourth visit to Israel, and he also met with Bibi.Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, visiting Israel on Monday, met with Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz in Jerusalem to discuss expanded cooperation between the Israeli government and the global high-tech giant.
The two men agreed on a memorandum of understanding on information and communications technology, to be signed within a few days by government Chief Information Officer Carmela Avner and Microsoft Israel CEO Danny Yamin.
The agreement sets the stage for Microsoft’s involvement in various IT aspects of government operations, including technological development and innovation, open government promotion, database management, data protection and privacy issues, information sharing and e-government services.
The agreement is intended to develop “shared infrastructure investment” in national information technology projects, and encourage interdependent Israeli technology companies and start-ups.
“Technological innovation and incubation are the driving force behind Israel’s dynamic economy,” Ballmer said. “Microsoft is proud to work in an environment that nurtures innovation and has created such a large number of successful technology companies.”
During the visit, Microsoft kicked off its international campaign for promoting Windows 8, introducing models of smartphones running that operating system.
Interestingly, although one can find Facebook groups for pretty much anything, I have failed to find a single group that pushes for boycotting Microsoft products because of their cooperation with Israel. Nothing about boycotting Microsoft on the major BDS webpages either.
I guess their idea of morality is to only go after toy stores and chocolate shops.