Google allegedly offered CISPE €14 million ($15.3m) in cash and €455m ($497.5m) in software licenses to continue its antitrust probe with the EU into Microsoft.

Ultimately, Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) and Microsoft agreed to settle for close to $22m last week.

First reported by Bloomberg and citing confidential documents, Google allegedly made the offer days before the settlement was announced, hoping to derail an agreement between CISPE and Microsoft.

The package offered would consist of €455m of software licenses spanning five years as well as a significant cash injection. This was conditional on the continuation of the EU antitrust complaint. Amazon Web Services (AWS) reportedly contributed €6m ($6.56m).

Despite this, and AWS being a member of CISPE, the majority of its members decided to accept Microsoft's offer which in addition to the €20m ($21.7m) settlement saw Microsoft giving members access to Azure Stack HCI for European cloud providers (Hosters) that enables them to run Microsoft software on their platforms at equivalent prices to Microsoft's.

At the time of the settlement announcement, Amit Zavery, head of platform at Google said: "Many regulatory bodies have opened inquiries into Microsoft's licensing practices, and we are hopeful there will be remedies to protect the cloud market from Microsoft's anti-competitive behavior.

"We are exploring our options to continue to fight against Microsoft’s anti-competitive licensing in order to promote choice, innovation, and the growth of the digital economy in Europe."

Microsoft is still facing anti-competitive investigations in the UK and the US.

In the UK, the CMA is investigating the cloud computing market in a probe that kicked off in October 2023, while in the US Microsoft is part of two investigations by the Federal Trade Commission.

The first commenced in January 2024 and is looking into AI services provided by companies including Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Anthropic, and OpenAI, focusing on the investments and partnerships being formed.

The second probe focuses on Microsoft, OpenAI, and Nvidia, and is looking at the companies' conduct and influence on the AI industry.