Microsoft to China: So long, it’s been good to know ya….

Once upon a time Microsoft was bullish on China. Back in early 2010, when Steve Ballmer was CEO and Bill Gates was Chairman, Google was threatening to pull out of China because of Chinese censorship and because of what the company called Chinese government-sponsored cyberattacks. Google wasn’t alone. Other tech companies — as well as politicians like then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — were saying the same things. Microsoft, though, was having none of it. Ballmer told Reuters back then, “We’re attacked every day from all parts of the world and I think everybody else is, too. We didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.” Reuters asked Ballmer whether the company would pull out of China, and Ballmer bluntly said, “No,” adding, “I don’t understand how that helps anything. I don’t understand how that helps us and I don’t understand how that helps China.” There was, of course, an ulterior motive to Ballmer’s defense of its China relationship. Google’s search engine was dominant across the world, and Microsoft’s Bing couldn’t catch up. Ballmer hoped Bing would make inroads into the Chinese market and eventually overtake Google worldwide. That didn’t happen, of course. It likely never will.…