Microsoft Bans Purchase of Apple Products With Company Funds

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Posted March 21, 2012 at 6:05pm by iClarified

Microsoft has reportedly sent an email to 46,000 of its employees worldwide informing them that Apple products can no longer be purchased with company funds, says ZDNet.

Here's the supposed e-mail:

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From: Alain Crozier
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 1:17 PM

Subject: Apple Purchases

Within SMSG we are putting in place a new policy that says that Apple products (Mac & iPad) should not be purchased with company funds.

In the US we will be turning off the Apple products from the Zones Catalog next week, which is the standard purchasing mechanism for these products.

Outside of the US - we will work with your finance and procurement teams to send the right message and put the right processes in place.

The current purchase levels are low, however we recognize there will be a bit of transition work associated with this. Details of historical purchases in the US are provided in the attachment to help understand the changes that will be needed.Thank you for your support and leadership on this.

Alain Crozier
CFO | WW Sales, Marketing & Services Group
WW SMSG Finance
----

When asking for confirmation of the email, ZDNet was told by a spokesperson that the company had no comment. No confirmation; no denial.

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Microsoft Bans Purchase of Apple Products With Company Funds

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iCrunch - March 22, 2012 at 12:38pm

Desperate people do desperate things.

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Noman - March 22, 2012 at 10:46am

Haha - so that mean that everyone in MS-Design team will have to stick with WindowsPCs :D Makes sense - more Squares to be followed....

KenyanDave - March 22, 2012 at 1:51am

Okay, so I work for the Macintosh business unit at Microsoft and develop MS Office for MacOS. Can someone tell me how to do that on a PeeCee? This story is a fabrication.

What - March 22, 2012 at 12:39am

I'm not so sure on some of comments seem like misunderstandng point of the email or am I getting wrong direction... Email clearly stated that they only forbid their ee from using company fund purchase apple product they did not mention any whether ee can't or can using their own money to by apple product... Correct me if I'm wrong

budsal - March 22, 2012 at 3:37am

I wasn't suggesting they had that intention at all. I just mentioned it sort of as an aside.

budsal - March 21, 2012 at 8:54pm

Good for Microsoft. I can only assume that Microsoft company funds are only used to buy things which will be used to conduct business. If, for example, 90% of Microsoft employees were using macs and ipads and iphones then it sends the wrong message to the public. Microsoft needs the world to view their products, or software, as better than the competition. Their employees using Apple products shows the world that this is not the case. Of course apple ios phones and tablets are better than microsoft os's, but microsoft would sign it's death warrant to admit it. If Microsoft were to forbid it's employees from using Apple products on their own time or for their own personal, non-business use, having been purchased with their own earned money then that would be a different thing entirely.

qw1987 - March 21, 2012 at 8:08pm

I'm no lawyer, but I am pretty sure that this is illegal.

will - March 21, 2012 at 8:33pm

Its not

qw1987 - March 21, 2012 at 8:58pm

Unless you ARE a lawyer, your comment doesn't hold much weight. You might be surprised what restrictions the DOJ places on purchasing decisions of large companies.

smate333 - March 22, 2012 at 3:39am

Microsoft or any business has the right to restrict and direct purchases made using Microsoft funds. Now, if a Microsoft employee was buying an Apple product on his/her OWN private expense, then it would be illegal for Microsoft to deny, interfere and so on. Microsoft still lawfully reserves the right to not allow employees with Apple products on their premises if they wish to do so.

DacksMac - March 22, 2012 at 4:50pm

Smate33 is correct, Bill is obviously uneducated on these simple matter.

DacksMac - March 22, 2012 at 4:52pm

Educate yourself Bill, your sound as though you know nothing about simple law.

justabrake - March 21, 2012 at 7:28pm

This reminds me when Bill Gates was asked about if he would have apple products in his house and he said never and his children weren't aloud to have them either

Lm - March 21, 2012 at 7:22pm

A lot of companies do that. I wouldn't be surprised if apple banned their employees from having a picture of wife and children on their desk and a mandatory picture of Steve Jobs instead.

ratGT - March 22, 2012 at 2:31am

A lot of trolls do this. I wouldn't be surprised if all sites banned their visitors from making useless/humorless comments and mandatory witty/usefull commentary was demanded instead.

ratGT - March 22, 2012 at 4:33am

No, that was not funny. It's just you either being equally humorless ir offering troll-to-troll support.

Ron - March 21, 2012 at 6:33pm

They should. They should support the devices that run their OS. If win8 on a tablet has open file system, my next tablet will be windows based. As are all my pc's. Else it is like a GM employee driving a Honda.

Frank - March 21, 2012 at 6:34pm

Macbooks run their OS

Adcpolo - March 21, 2012 at 10:08pm

So what if I'm an GM employee an drive a Honda? GM didn't pay for it

ECC - March 22, 2012 at 2:07am

As long as it's not a company car, who cares...BTW, how do the VP expect their developers to work on OS X or iOS apps? Last I checked, my Office for Mac was a MS product...