Google offered €470 million to destroy Microsoft’s antitrust pact

Google has offered a group of European Union-based cloud computing companies a package worth about 470 million euros ($512 million) in a failed attempt to torpedo an antitrust settlement with Microsoft Corp. that freed the U.S. software giant from a potentially costly EU case.

Cloud Infrastructure Providers Europe, or CISPE, last week withdrew a complaint to the EU antitrust watchdog over Microsoft’s software licensing processes after negotiating a deal to get more equitable access to the U.S. company’s technology. CISPE had previously argued that Microsoft was making it harder for customers to switch cloud providers by tying its business software to Azure cloud services.