Portugese company Microsoft Lda. are to put their brand name and business up for sale on eBay. They are the only company who can use the name “Microsoft” in Portugal, having started trading there in 1981. The other, rather more famous company with the same name, didn’t begin operating in Portugal until 1990: they are known there as MSFT.
Chief Executive Ricardo Carvalho said that the starting price will be $1million. He told Reuters that “MSFT has said it was interested in our brand name but needed more time to discuss the matter. We have held talks with them in the past and didn’t want to wait for them anymore.”
It will be interesting to see if Mr Gates and co. bid on the auction: in the past, they’ve settled a dispute over a Canadian teenager’s domain name MikeRoweSoft.com with – amongst other things – an Xbox and a trip to their HQ.
