Mandriva’s Nigeria-gate man speaks to the INQ
MANDRIVA'S CEO in the news, Francois Bancilhon has spoken to The INQUIRER about his blog entry yesterday that caused a stir by implicitly suggesting Microsoft had used borderline dirty tactics to encourage the Nigerian government to switch a large number of systems from Linux to Windows.
In an “open letter to Steve Ballmer”, Bancilhon writes: “your people got in the game and the deal got more competitive. I would not say it got dirty, but someone could have said that. Your team fought and fought again the deal, but still the customer was happy with Mandriva. We actually closed the deal, we took the order, we qualified the software, we got the machine shipped. To conclude, we did our job. And, the machines are being delivered right now. Now, we hear a different story from the customer : ‘we shall pay for the Mandriva Software as agreed, but we shall replace it by Windows afterward'. Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done to these guys to make them change their mind like this? It’s quite clear to me, and it will be to everyone.”
In a phone call today, Bancilhon added a bit more detail:
“We’d been working on the deal for three to six months and things were going well,” he told us. “We came up with initial pricing and at some point Microsoft showed up with a different price so we had to change the price. This is normal competition but still the customer was interested in what we were doing. The negotiations went on and on and at some point we were told we had won the deal. It was complex: the manufacturing was in Taiwan, our developers were in Brazil, Intel is in Santa Clara, the customer was in Nigeria and we were in France. Then I had an interview with a journalist and the journalist called me back and said ‘I’ve just talked to the people in Nigeria and they tell me they will pay for Mandriva and then throw it away and replace it with Windows'. We’ve been in many competitive situations but this was the first time it was obvious…”
What was obvious? Here Bancilhon is cagey:
“Something must have happened in between. The thing is, this was 17,000 machines and this was only the first phase of a larger order in the area of 100,000 machines. Microsoft has so much money and power that they can never, never let a deal like this happen.”
Will this turn legal? Bancilhon is cagey again:
“We’re just collecting the facts to see what can happen. This deal is not over until the fat lady sings. I’m still trying to get it through. In many cases we’re brought in to lower the price but this was not the case here.” µ
See Also
Mandriva
driver broadsides Ballmer
Nigerian-Microsoft
deal revealed
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Nigeria (Africa) does not need another western company too bleed them dry! Opensource is ideal for them..it is also ideal for the young generation to learn how computers really work.
Not using windows that declares the user as stupid and not allows for doing anything creative.
Please keep us updated.
Thank goodness that they corrected the terrible sin that was to occur in Nigeria, are wiping the Mandriva Linux off of all those Classmate PC's and are replacing it with the wonderfully secure MS windows. Good catch there, Steve! Boy, Nigeria does not have enough problems with medical diseases, they now need computer viruses, trojans, and porn-pop-ups!

According to Microsoft, the use of open source IS JUST WRONG. Everyone HAS TO USE MICROSOFT SOFTWARE and PAY MICROSOFT (or face the consequences). There are no exceptions to this compound rule, thus Microsoft's continued fear-mongering threats against Linux, along with organizing cowardly puppet-organization attacks, AKA SCO and IP Innovation/Acacia. 

I for one hope they lose billions of dollars of business due to this latest example of corporate egomania and corruption. They lost mine a long time ago.
If Mandriva is still getting paid, that means it's costing Microsoft money--they're buying their customers the product, it's not their customers buying it for themselves. So as long as Mandriva still gets the same money, why should they complain?
May I advise Mandriva to contact the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate this case to find the sudden change of course by the key public officials of Nigeria who committed this breach of contract.

Tax-payers in Nigeria would be interested how their public funds are being spent.

Cheers and God bless.
D. Suse wrote about Microsofts puppet-organization attacks, AKA SCO and IP Innovation/Acacia.

Interesting. Found these articles about this sort of claims:
http://boycottnovell.com/2007/10/15/acacia-comparison-sco-connection/

http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/23302.html

Response to Lawrence D'Oliveiro-

Wouldn't you complain if a wrench had been thrown into the percieved sale of five times the number of units initially delivered???

Not saying it worked this way but- M$ goes to Nigeria and says use Windows and we'll "compensate" you for your original outlay to Mandrake and cut you a cheaper deal on the remaining seats in order to win the total business.

Nothing wrong with that ... is there???

And I'm sure there's no harm to the Mandrake orginization as they got their initial return and who can count on future business right?