[CTRL] Microsoft Happy in Seattle, Won't Move to Canada

[Shane A. Saylor, Eccentric Bard]

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) and Canadian
officials poured cold water on reports authorities in British Columbia were
trying to lure the software behemoth north amid its antitrust battle with
the U.S. government.

Microsoft, which has been in the Seattle area since the late 1970s and
employs nearly 20,000 people in its sprawling corporate campus in Redmond,
Wash., said it was staying put.

``There is no truth to the reports of any intent to move the company,''
Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said Friday.

A report on the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) Web site said that by
moving its headquarters into Canada, Microsoft would frustrate attempts by
U.S. anti-trust officials to break up the company.

``Microsoft believes we will win this (antitrust) case in the (U.S. federal)
court of appeals and we are very happy here in Seattle,'' Cullinan said.

The BBC report said officials in British Columbia had offered to do a deal
with Microsoft that could include a loan to build a new headquarters.

B.C. Investment Minister Gordon Wilson, whose office was cited as the source
of the offer, said the rumor that the province had offered an incentive deal
began with a California newsletter on technology stocks.

``I haven't had any formal talks with anyone with Microsoft,'' Wilson told
reporters in Victoria, the province's capital.

Other Canadian observers said it was unlikely that the world's biggest
software company would pack up and move.

``I wouldn't put much credence in it, quite frankly,'' Darcy Rezac, managing
director of the Vancouver Board of Trade, said of the BBC report.

``Microsoft may have its battles with the U.S. government, but it's an
excellent corporate citizen of Seattle. The suggestion that they'd move
their headquarters to Vancouver would be wonderful if it were possible, but
I just wouldn't put credence in it.''

``I think it's just a little bit of puffery coming out of California by
people in the industry who think that Microsoft has been badly treated.''
said Frank Came, executive director of the Vancouver Economic Development
Commission (VEDC).

Cullinan said Microsoft has received suggestions over the years from
countries such as Norway, Ireland and China that it should relocate its
headquarters or build a large presence outside of the United States.

Microsoft, founded in Albuquerque, N.M., in 1975, relocated to Bellevue,
Wash. in January 1979 and to its current Redmond site in 1986.

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