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Are you a Microsoft employee? Contact this reporter via the encrypted messaging app Signal or email .Last month, the CEOs of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple answered tough questions about their business practices from a US congressional antitrust committee, live for the public to see. Not only is Microsoft bidding to acquire TikTok's US operations ahead of the Trump administration's deadline for a deal, but it just last week scored a major victory as the Pentagon on Fridayto award the $10 billion JEDI cloud contract to Microsoft — despite arguments by Amazon Web Services that it lost the deal because of political interference.
That reputation has helped Microsoft stay out of Trump's crosshairs, even as the administration takes aim at other tech giants such as Amazon. Now, Smith's influence will be crucial as Microsoft navigates a bid to acquire a portion of the viral-video app TikTok from its Chinese owner under pressure from Trump for a sale.
He continued: "And he was the guy who realized that, if the company was going to continue to move forward and remain successful, it was time to find a way of being pragmatic and building bridges with other companies in the industry and with government." While Nadella is often given the bulk of the credit for the grand transformation of Microsoft into a more open, collaborative company, Gutierrez says that the CEO "relies on [Smith] heavily" when it comes to making institutional change. Microsoft declined to make Nadella available for this article.
That all changed when Smith came on board as general counsel, Snapp, who joined Microsoft as an attorney in 1988, said. Google, for instance, expanded Kent Walker's role in 2018 to senior vice president of global affairs, giving him a wider mandate than his previous title of general counsel. Facebook, Snapp said, even called on Smith and Microsoft for guidance on creating a similar role within the company. Facebook was unable to confirm that conversation happened, but a company representative said that's "not to say it didn't happen.
Walker, for his part, said Smith had more than once been the one to bring the tech industry together when the situation called for it. The breadth of people who have passed through Microsoft has also helped, particularly when it comes to TikTok. "Microsoft has a huge influence on the state," Lee said. "It's been really challenging to counter the army of lobbyists they have in Olympia," the state capital. Microsoft said it had only one in-house lobbyist in Olympia and used two external, contracted lobbyists for the issue.Smith's admirers, by contrast, say what makes him effective in the political sphere is his ability to empathize with his opponents — and sometimes even recruit them when all is said and done.
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