Murdoch dumps Microsoft, prepares to Hangout with Google

Rupert Murdoch is fond of berating Google, last year emitting the Tweet below and previously accusing it of stealing his precious content.

"Please expose Eric Schmidt, Google " etc. Just wait!

— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) October 13, 2013

What, then, are we to make of this report titled “News Corp dumps Microsoft for Google Apps” in The Australian, a national daily newspaper that Murdoch himself created in 1964. The story reports that News Corporation, Murdoch's antipodean publishing entity, will migrate “its email and calendar platforms from Microsoft Outlook to Google Mail and Calendar over the next six months.” That probably means Exchange is going, too, a detail the paper's IT section hasn't reported.

Microsoft Office will retain its place on the desktop, but chief technology officer Tom Quinn is quoted as saying Google Drive and even Google+ Hangouts are on his radar.

“We are committed to providing the best systems and tools available to our employees and Going Google is a great way to strengthen the tools we offer,” Quinn tlls the paper.

Quinn also says News' Google licence will be “$AUD700,000” a year, but does not say if that's cheaper than Microsoft's services and licences.

News Corporation Australia was recently cut loose from the mothership after an act of fiscal gymnastics aimed, analysts feel, at making sure the bits of the local business with good prospects and strong balance sheets are separated from the rather more challenged print bits of the local Murdoch empire.

With that background behind us, we offer the analysis that this deal is not a sign of a détente between News and Google. It's a local outpost trying to save a few bucks.

Still, it may make for some interesting moments next time Rupert drops in to visit his Australian holdings and asks to check his email.

News Corporation has also served as a public reference for both Amazon Web Services and Azure. ®