Microsoft moves out of Egypt

Microsoft has begun moving some operations out of Egypt After years of reaching out to tech companies and establishing Cairo’s Smart Village to attract major international corporations, unrest in Egypt has begun reversing those gains.

International tech giant Microsoft has begun to distribute most of its operations in the country to other locations worldwide. “Egypt’s government has demonstrated just how quickly it can unwind its hi-tech goals,” wrote Patrick Thibodeau for Computerworld.com.

Microsoft is only one of the 120 companies at the Smart Village in Egypt, but it is a leader there.

With its global Xbox support call center located in Cairo, the shutting off of the Internet by the Egyptian government has forced it to make alternatives available to its customers.

Microsoft said in a written statement that it “is constantly assessing the impact of the unrest and Internet connection issues on our properties and services. What limited service the company as a whole provides to and through the region, mainly call-center service, has been largely distributed to other locations.”

Hewlett-Packard, also at the Smart Village, has instructed its employees to stay at home for the near future as the popular uprising continues into its second week.

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