Exclusive: Microsoft CEO Nadella to visit China amid antitrust investigation

By Gerry Shih and Paul Carsten BEIJING/SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Satya Nadella is set to visit China in late September, the company said on Thursday, as the Chinese government conducts an antitrust investigation into the world’s largest software company. It was unclear whether Nadella, who took over as Microsoft’s CEO in February, would meet with Chinese government officials as part of his visit or try to resolve issues with the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC), one of China’s antitrust regulators. SAIC officials could not be reached for comment. Microsoft, which typically does not comment on business travel plans, confirmed the trip but sought to defuse any tensions over antitrust issues. “Satya’s trip was planned before the Chinese government’s investigation began,” a company spokesman said. “We are committed to complying with Chinese regulations and responding to SAIC’s questions and concerns.” Microsoft is one of several foreign companies under scrutiny as China seeks to enforce a 2008 antitrust law that some critics say is being used to unfairly target foreign companies. Foreign CEOs often visit the world’s second-largest economy to strengthen business and political ties. Nadella would be at least the second major technology executive to visit the country as antitrust tensions mount. Qualcomm Inc. Chief Executive Derek Aberle, seeking to end his own antitrust scrutiny of the wireless chip giant, met with China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) last week. Nadella’s predecessor, Steve Ballmer, visited China four times in the past five fiscal years, Microsoft said. It’s unclear whether Microsoft has achieved much with such high-profile executive appearances in a country where Windows and Office are widely pirated. Ballmer said in 2011 that Microsoft earned more revenue in the Netherlands than in China. Microsoft deputy general counsel Mary Snapp met with SAIC officials in Beijing earlier this month to discuss the antitrust issue. Despite widespread Windows piracy, China’s SAIC opened an antitrust investigation into Microsoft earlier this month, alleging that the company may have violated antitrust rules governing document compliance, packaging and authentication for its Windows operating system and Office suite of applications. SAIC chief Zhang Mao told a briefing in Beijing on Tuesday that his organization — one of three antitrust regulators in China — focuses on Microsoft’s web browser and media player and suspects the company has not been fully transparent about its Windows and Office sales. The investigation has been met with puzzlement outside China, given that Microsoft settled U.S. and European antitrust cases over Windows more than a decade ago and its monopoly on desktop software is now largely irrelevant to the explosion of tablets and phones running software from Apple Inc or Google Inc. The investigation is part of a series of antitrust probes against foreign companies in China, including Qualcomm and German automaker Daimler AG’s luxury car unit, Mercedes-Benz, renewing fears of Chinese protectionism. (Additional reporting by Bill Rigby in Seattle)