slashdot covered this "Microsoft has acceded to the Finance Ministry's demand that it be allowed to purchase individual components of Microsoft Office, rather than having to purchase the entire package, the ministry said yesterday.
Since this was the heart of the dispute between the ministry and Microsoft - a dispute that recently led the ministry to threaten that it would stop using Microsoft products and switch to open-code software - this concession would presumably clear the way for the ministry to sign a new deal with Microsoft.
But Microsoft Israel insisted yesterday that it had always offered the government the option of buying certain programs individually, though not all, just as it does for other large clients. "There is nothing new in the [most recent] proposal that was sent to the government," the company said in a statement.
The government, with some 40,000 computers, currently accounts for about 3 percent of Microsoft Israel's annual revenues. However, it is trying to reduce the amount it spends on software, and since many of its computers do not need the full Microsoft Office package, the treasury decided that one way to cut back on software outlays was to buy only the programs that each computer needs." from haaretz