Australian Prime Minister, Scotty from marketing, has reportedly sat down with Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, and other Microsoft Australia executives to discuss the possibilities of how the company can elevate their search presence in the country should Google withdraw their services because of the zany Media Bargaining Code the government is cooking up.
While ScoMo has said nothing about the meet, Josh Fryendberg has had no problems talking about it, doing the usual rounds of TV and press backing the draft laws. According to him, Microsoft are “watching this very closely”, which makes sense seeing the last time I used the “Bing” logo was in 2013 and it largely surprises everyone that it’s still a thing.
Could Microsoft and Bing be a viable solution if Google were ever to (very unlikely) withdraw search because of the proposed legislation? I mean, they’d certainly give it a crack and I’m sure they’d get a nice incentive to if the government kicked in some cash perhaps? Who knows how much of a death grip they want to hold onto the new code?
You can read the full rundown over on the Australian Financial Review (if you have a subscription that is).