Bonum Certa Men Certa

Estarta Solutions a Microsoft Proxy in Jordan, Elsewhere

Estarta



Summary: Cablegate shows Microsoft injecting funds into a company to imprison a whole nation on its behalf

TECHRIGHT has a wiki page about Microsoft in Jordan. It helps highlight the pattern of operation of Microsoft around the world. it organises itself around subsidiaries that pretend to be "local" and "create jobs". One Cablegate cable, posted below in its raw form, shows us how US diplomats describe Microsoft's "INVESTMENT IN JORDAN". We are highlighting parts of interest.










DEPT PASS FOR ANE/MEA KIM FINAN USDOC FOR 4520/ITA/MAC/ONE/PAUL THANOS USDOC FOR 6400/ITA/TD/OEC/KFERGUSON TREASURY FOR PIPATANAGUL TDA FOR SIGLER

E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECPS, BEXP, EINV, JO SUBJECT: MICROSOFT EXPANDS INVESTMENT IN JORDAN

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY

------- SUMMARY -------

1. (U) Estarta Solutions, the result of a merger between two prominent and well-established Jordanian IT companies, represents a significant expansion of Microsoft\'s investment and presence in Jordan. The new company bills itself as an international IT solutions company and consultant specializing in e-government, e-education, banking and finance, telecom, and logistics. The deal demonstrates the GOJ\'s determination to boost the development of the IT sector. End Summary

---------- BACKGROUND ----------

2. (U) On May 20, following weeks of speculation and negotiations, and amidst a great deal of fanfare, Microsoft Vice President for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa Emre Birkin announced the launch of Estarta Solutions, the result of a merger between Jordan\'s two leading IT firms, ONEWORLD Jordan and Zeine Technological Applications. Birkin said that reform of Jordan\'s investment framework laws and a favorable \"IT investment ambiance\" in the country were behind Microsoft\'s preference to launch a new project in Jordan. The new firm, which will be based in Amman, will employ 200 people. Among its current clients are Thomson Financial, Apple, Siemens, and the Jordanian government.

3. (U) Microsoft will take a small share in the company, as will al-Foursan, a local venture capital fund specializing in IT companies. In addition to its investment stake, Microsoft has committed to channel business to Estarta (such as for creating an Arabic version of its Excel 7.0 spreadsheet program). According to a banker involved as an adviser in the merger negotiations, some issues relating to the corporate structure and management of the new company remain to be worked out.

------------------ THE HOPE OF JORDAN ------------------

4. (U) At a dinner reception given by Estarta to celebrate the launch and attended by the Ambassador, Minister of Planning Bassem Awadallah, Minister of Trade, Industry and Commerce Salah al-Bashir, and local IT professionals, Minister of Information and Communications Technology Fawwaz Zu\'bi opened the proceedings and said the \"young entrepreneurs\" who forged the new company represented \"the hope of Jordan\". He said the merged company represented a model for \"what we would like to see in Jordan\", and expressed his hope that other international IT companies might now be more encouraged to invest in Jordan as a result of the deal. The Ambassador cited Microsoft\'s participation in the venture as \"a vote of confidence in Jordan\'s ability to grow\".

5. (U) Earlier, at a press conference announcing the merger, King Abdullah stressed the importance of cooperation between the private sector and the government, particularly the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, in working \"to open new horizons for IT in Jordan\". Contacts between Microsoft and Jordan developed following a meeting between King Abdullah and Microsoft CEO Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2000. Their relationship drove Microsoft\'s plans for expanding its presence in Jordan. One reason for the long gestation period was the change in Jordan\'s Companies Law required to permit the formation of a joint stock company (as opposed to the more common form of a limited liability partnership), as demanded by Microsoft.

--------- SYNERGIES ---------

6. (U) We spoke with Estarta Senior Director Basil Qubain about some of the upcoming projects the new company had in the pipeline. He stressed that Estarta was all about creating new approaches and synergies for its clients, not using existing applications to solve problems. He cited Mobius, a wireless platform that enables content providers to send web-based content to any mobile phone, and Gaia, Estarta\'s patent-pending pattern recognition software, as two major projects with broad applications, ranging from commercial to military, forged as solutions to client problems and challenges. As an example of Estarta\'s cooperation with Microsoft, Qubain pointed to Muse, an automated intelligence interface that plugs into Microsoft programs and acts as a virtual information manager and organizer. By way of example, Qubain explained that once an email is received by a user, Muse will list all previously received emails linked either by subject or sender, enabling the user to access and consolidate related information.

7. (SBU) Qubain said that the merger itself has gone quite smoothly, as clients and personnel from Zeine and ONEWORLD complement each other rather well. He added Estarta did face a challenge regarding rival mobile telecom companies Fastlink and MobileCom, as each was a client of Zeine and ONEWORLD respectively. While theoretically it was possible to retain both firms as clients, he said given current tensions between the two it was impractical and unlikely. Qubain said he did not yet know how the dilemma would be resolved.

------- COMMENT -------

8. (U) Coming after a dry period following the September 11 disaster, Microsoft\'s decision to invest in Jordan represents a shot in the arm for Jordan\'s efforts to attract foreign investment despite its volatile neighborhood. It is also a boost for the Jordanian IT sector. Not just another IT shop, Estarta has the goods and the drive to become, as it hopes, the leading IT solution provider in the region with worldwide reach. The success of Microsoft\'s investment in Estarta could well attract more likewise innovative firms and investors to a sector that Jordan expects to be a key to its continued economic growth. Gnehm







A few points to note here are the manipulation of government by Microsoft, the creation of a loophole to get around Jordanian law, and lobbying from Bill Gates, to whom this is a matter of nepotism, not technical merit.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Register Bill
The Register MS - putting the "MS" in your centre of the universe
Analogies for "Memory Safety" in Rust
Don't worry, it's Rust! It can do anything!
 
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Linux Journal, and the Serial Slopper
Google won't tackle the issue because Google participates not only in relaying slop but also in generating lots of it
Links 07/09/2025: Google Fines in EU and "Your Internet Access Is at Risk"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Little Brother and Corporate Theatre
Links for the day
Links 07/09/2025: More Harms of Slop and Anthropic's Nightmare Scenario (Huge Legal Liabilities for Slop)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 06, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 06, 2025
Microsoft Sites Now Talking About September's Mass Layoffs at Microsoft
It's noteworthy that even Microsoft's MSN now covers the latest revelations about mass layoffs
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: SpellBinding Moving and "The Cloud" Ridiculed
Links for the day
Slopwatch: On "the Apology Industry", Chatbots (Punchbag for Customers), and Fake Articles About "Linux"
"news reporting priorities changed"
Links 06/09/2025: "Covid Incidence on the Rise" and Many Attacks on the Press Worldwide
Links for the day
Nobody Denies That SecureBoot Will Cause Problems After September 11
Not even Microsoft
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: Infinite Scrolling and Posting from Emacs
Links for the day
Links 06/09/2025: GitHub Meltdown Over Slop, "U.S. Jury Says Google Should Pay $425 Million in Privacy Lawsuit"
Links for the day
Despite Its Severe Financial Problems Gnome Foundation Inc Paid Rosanna Yuen Over 100,000 Dollars Last Year
maybe relocation should be considered
The "Left" and the Right"
It poisons everything
Mozilla and Rust Are Not Leftists
they're part of the mass consumerism machine
Disposable to Microsoft
There is an extensive set of people who got used by Microsoft, only to be thrown away a month later or a year later or a decade later
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VII - This Coming Week Many PCs Will Refuse to Boot "Linux" (Because of Microsoft's Expired Certificate)
The real solution is, disable "secure boot" or "SecureBoot" while it's still possible. [...] Just like submarine patents, a lot of this problem was "hibernating" for a while
The Thing Nobody in Red Hat Wants to Talk About Openly
There is a real sentiment or worry among Red Hatters, Europeans and Americans in particulars (because of higher salary expectations)
Slopwatch: Small Parade of Fake News About "Linux" and Scams Borrowing the Name (or Word) "Linux"
In practice, LLMs are a risk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 05, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 05, 2025
Genini Links 05/09/2025: Community, ROOPHLOCH, and PITkit
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Vaccine Sceptics Poison the Well, Two Exploited Vulnerabilities Patched in Android
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/09/2025: Logitech Lift and DIY Gemini Servers
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Sainsbury's Caught Spying on In-Store Shoppers and Microsoft "OpenAI is Using Legal Threats to Harass its Critics"
Links for the day
BASIC Predates Microsoft by Over a Decade, Microsoft-Controlled Sites Like The Register MS Don't Want You to Know This
The state of the media is really bad when it relies a lot on oligarchs' money and is appointing editors who are working for oligarchs
Brian Kernighan, "Only Third to Dennis Richie and Ken Thompson" (UNIX), Agreed With Someone Who Said Rust Was Just Hype, Should Not Replace C
17 hours ago
Reminder: Microsoft's "Secure Boot" Certificate for "Linux" Will be Expired in One Week
Many PCs won't manage to 'rotate' to another certificate
"Many of the Red Hat Employees Are Still Looking for Work"
Shame on IBM's CEO
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 04, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 04, 2025
Microsoft Started With Code Literally From The Trash, Nothing Has Improved Since
The reality is, there are systems and code that are reliable. But they're not Microsoft's.
Hypothesis That New McKinsey/Microsoft Executive Inside Red Hat Will Outsource Research and Development Operations to India (Like They Do in IBM)
IBM is floundering
Slopwatch: Scams, Fake Articles About "Linux", Plagiarism, and Worse
Perhaps some time soon the LLMs or the "Big LLMs" will run out of money (to borrow) and go offline, leaving those slopfarms in a tough place