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Microsoft Bans Internal Purchases of Mac and iPad

Last Updated on Sunday, 08 April 2012 07:51 Published on Wednesday, 21 March 2012 18:39

A Microsoft internal email has surfaced which shows that Microsoft will not be allowing their Marketing and Sales groups to purchase the Apple iPad and Mac. SMSG which is short for Microsoft’s Sales, Marketing, Services, IT, & Operations Group may be putting a policy in place that will block employees from using internal funds to purchase Apple products.

The change makes sense to not allow internal Microsoft funds to be used on competitor products, but why the change now? Here is a copy of the email that was circulated:

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

ZDNet reached out to Microsoft asking for confirmation of the email but was greeted with the standard “no comment.” So this means that Microsoft neither confirmed or denied that the email was sent. I would expect that if this was completely false that Microsoft would have stated so by now. The email above also states that the volume of purchases was low but did not include numbers to what low actually means. 

Honestly, Microsoft might be feeling the heat from Apple which should have been a long time ago. Microsoft likely has their own reasons. [ tekgoblin ]