Romania Spends $120 Million on Microsoft

Brad R Saturday 20 February 2010 - 17:06:32  

Thanks to Charles C. for sending this item along.

The Romanian Communications Ministry will pay EUR 90.18 million (including VAT) for the right to use 163,427 Microsoft licenses – for around 30 public agencies, including some ministries. The payment will be done in nine equal batches, until 2012.

Today, 90 million Euro is worth about 122 million US Dollars. That's almost $750 per license. Granted, the contract includes 50,000 hours of support, but that's less than 20 minutes of support per license.

I keep hearing that governments everywhere are trying to control expenses. Switching to open-source software would be an easy start.
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