● 09.02.11
●● Estarta Solutions a Microsoft Proxy in Jordan, Elsewhere
Posted in Asia, Cablegate, Microsoft at 10:31 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Cablegate shows Microsoft injecting funds into a company to imprison a whole nation on its behalf
TECHRIGHT has a wiki page about Microsoft in Jordan. It helps highlight the pattern of operation of Microsoft around the world. it organises itself around subsidiaries that pretend to be “local” and “create jobs”. One Cablegate cable, posted below in its raw form, shows us how US diplomats describe Microsoft’s “INVESTMENT IN JORDAN”. We are highlighting parts of interest.
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DEPT PASS FOR ANE/MEA KIM FINAN
USDOC FOR 4520/ITA/MAC/ONE/PAUL THANOS
USDOC FOR 6400/ITA/TD/OEC/KFERGUSON
TREASURY FOR PIPATANAGUL
TDA FOR SIGLER
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECPS, BEXP, EINV, JO
SUBJECT: MICROSOFT EXPANDS INVESTMENT IN JORDAN
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY
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SUMMARY
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1. (U) Estarta Solutions, the result of a merger between two
prominent and well-established Jordanian IT companies,
represents a significant expansion of Microsoft\'s investment
and presence in Jordan. The new company bills itself as an
international IT solutions company and consultant
specializing in e-government, e-education, banking and
finance, telecom, and logistics. The deal demonstrates the
GOJ\'s determination to boost the development of the IT
sector. End Summary
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BACKGROUND
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2. (U) On May 20, following weeks of speculation and
negotiations, and amidst a great deal of fanfare, Microsoft
Vice President for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa Emre
Birkin announced the launch of Estarta Solutions, the result
of a merger between Jordan\'s two leading IT firms, ONEWORLD
Jordan and Zeine Technological Applications. Birkin said
that reform of Jordan\'s investment framework laws and a
favorable \"IT investment ambiance\" in the country were behind
Microsoft\'s preference to launch a new project in Jordan.
The new firm, which will be based in Amman, will employ 200
people. Among its current clients are Thomson Financial,
Apple, Siemens, and the Jordanian government.
3. (U) Microsoft will take a small share in the company, as
will al-Foursan, a local venture capital fund specializing in
IT companies. In addition to its investment stake, Microsoft
has committed to channel business to Estarta (such as for
creating an Arabic version of its Excel 7.0 spreadsheet
program). According to a banker involved as an adviser in
the merger negotiations, some issues relating to the
corporate structure and management of the new company remain
to be worked out.
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THE HOPE OF JORDAN
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4. (U) At a dinner reception given by Estarta to celebrate
the launch and attended by the Ambassador, Minister of
Planning Bassem Awadallah, Minister of Trade, Industry and
Commerce Salah al-Bashir, and local IT professionals,
Minister of Information and Communications Technology Fawwaz
Zu\'bi opened the proceedings and said the \"young
entrepreneurs\" who forged the new company represented \"the
hope of Jordan\". He said the merged company represented a
model for \"what we would like to see in Jordan\", and
expressed his hope that other international IT companies
might now be more encouraged to invest in Jordan as a result
of the deal. The Ambassador cited Microsoft\'s participation
in the venture as \"a vote of confidence in Jordan\'s ability
to grow\".
5. (U) Earlier, at a press conference announcing the merger,
King Abdullah stressed the importance of cooperation between
the private sector and the government, particularly the
Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, in
working \"to open new horizons for IT in Jordan\". Contacts
between Microsoft and Jordan developed following a meeting
between King Abdullah and Microsoft CEO Bill Gates at the
World Economic Forum in Davos in 2000. Their relationship
drove Microsoft\'s plans for expanding its presence in Jordan.
One reason for the long gestation period was the change in
Jordan\'s Companies Law required to permit the formation of a
joint stock company (as opposed to the more common form of a
limited liability partnership), as demanded by Microsoft.
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SYNERGIES
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6. (U) We spoke with Estarta Senior Director Basil Qubain
about some of the upcoming projects the new company had in
the pipeline. He stressed that Estarta was all about
creating new approaches and synergies for its clients, not
using existing applications to solve problems. He cited
Mobius, a wireless platform that enables content providers to
send web-based content to any mobile phone, and Gaia,
Estarta\'s patent-pending pattern recognition software, as two
major projects with broad applications, ranging from
commercial to military, forged as solutions to client
problems and challenges. As an example of Estarta\'s
cooperation with Microsoft, Qubain pointed to Muse, an
automated intelligence interface that plugs into Microsoft
programs and acts as a virtual information manager and
organizer. By way of example, Qubain explained that once an
email is received by a user, Muse will list all previously
received emails linked either by subject or sender, enabling
the user to access and consolidate related information.
7. (SBU) Qubain said that the merger itself has gone quite
smoothly, as clients and personnel from Zeine and ONEWORLD
complement each other rather well. He added Estarta did face
a challenge regarding rival mobile telecom companies Fastlink
and MobileCom, as each was a client of Zeine and ONEWORLD
respectively. While theoretically it was possible to retain
both firms as clients, he said given current tensions between
the two it was impractical and unlikely. Qubain said he did
not yet know how the dilemma would be resolved.
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COMMENT
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8. (U) Coming after a dry period following the September 11
disaster, Microsoft\'s decision to invest in Jordan represents
a shot in the arm for Jordan\'s efforts to attract foreign
investment despite its volatile neighborhood. It is also a
boost for the Jordanian IT sector. Not just another IT shop,
Estarta has the goods and the drive to become, as it hopes,
the leading IT solution provider in the region with worldwide
reach. The success of Microsoft\'s investment in Estarta
could well attract more likewise innovative firms and
investors to a sector that Jordan expects to be a key to its
continued economic growth.
Gnehm
A few points to note here are the manipulation of government by Microsoft, the creation of a loophole to get around Jordanian law, and lobbying from Bill Gates, to whom this is a matter of nepotism, not technical merit. █
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