Microsoft President Brad Smith Raised Apple Issues to House Antitrust Group ⇥ bloomberg.com

Dina Bass, Bloomberg:

Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith raised concerns to U.S. lawmakers about what the company regards as Apple Inc.’s anti-competitive behavior around its app store, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Smith, who is also chief legal officer, was invited by the House of Representatives’s antitrust subcommittee to share his experiences around Microsoft’s own antitrust battle with the U.S. government in the late 1990s. During the conversation, which occurred weeks ago, he discussed the company’s issue with Apple, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussion was private.

I’m not arguing that there isn’t an antitrust case to be made against Apple — clearly, regulators believe that there is. It’s just that it is a little hard to take seriously that Microsoft, the world’s second most valuable company, has major complaints with the App Store. What is its grievance? That it deserves to be the most valuable company, and it would be if not for those meddling kids at Apple?