Microsoft's Global Technological Support Center (GTSC, Big China Area) announced Tuesday a series of new value-added after-sale services. At the same time, Microsoft for the first time confirmed that it had won an order from Beijing government, but with a sum much lower than the 30 million yuan (about US$3.6 million) expected earlier.

Beijing government indeed bought some software from Microsoft recently, a market strategy manager of Microsoft said, but the sum of the deal was much lower than what people said.

On November 17 last year, Microsoft sent a wave of panic among domestic software producers when it pocketed the "computer operation system and copyright office software" item at a price of 29.25 million yuan (about US$3.5 million). The deal also roused doubts from government officials and experts. At the end of that month, the government announced cancellation of the order and signed purchase agreements with many domestic software makers, with the value of these deals kept unknown.

(People's Daily March 17, 2005)