Microsoft: Brexit won't make us pull business in UK

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Microsoft said the comments made by an employee were not reflective of the company's view Credit: AP

Microsoft has denied that Brexit could make it rethink its investment in the UK after an employee said it may choose to expand elsewhere in Europe.

“As we have said both before and after the EU referendum vote, Microsoft’s commitment to the UK is unchanged. In particular, those customers in our UK data centres should continue to rely on Microsoft’s significant investment plans there,” it said.

Owen Larter, Microsoft UK’s government affairs manager, had said that high import tariffs could see the company build its data centres elsewhere in Europe. The American technology giant is currently building two new facilities in Britain for its cloud computing services, whose customers include the Ministry of Defence.

It expects demand to double by 2019, and Larter said it was important to ensure that personal data can be transferred between the UK and EU after Brexit.

Huge data centres host data and software in the cloud 
Huge data centres host data and software in the cloud  Credit: Rex Features

Asked about Brexit in a video conference with customers on Friday, he said: “We at Microsoft are pretty clear that we're committed to the UK as it stands. There are some concerns that we have, that we need to see the UK getting right as part of the Brexit process.

“But if they do do that, then the technology digital industry won't be affected as the finance industry is. We'll be okay and we could have quite a bright future for the tech sector in the UK.”

He then added that: “That bright future will not be possible if we cannot transfer data into UK data centres... If all of a sudden there are huge import [tariffs] on server racks from China or from Eastern Europe, where a lot of them are actually assembled, that might change our investment decisions and perhaps we build out our data centres across other European countries.”

Microsoft said that these comments “were not reflective of the company’s view”, and emphasised its commitment to Britain. “We have more than 5,000 highly qualified people working in fields including support, marketing, gaming, communications, cybersecurity and computer science research,” it said.

Microsoft recently hiked the price of its cloud computing services by 22pc following the fall in the pound, a move that it said brought the cost in line with other countries.

 

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