Microsoft's silly and embarrassing spat with Canadian teenager Mike Rowe ended this weekend, when the company announced a settlement in which it will help Rowe move the content from his http://www.mikerowesoft.com Web site to a new location on the Web. Rowe agreed to give up the Web site in return for a set of perks from Microsoft, including an Xbox video game library and a subscription to MSDN.
"Once we were able to engage with Mike, we found him to be a bright young man with great potential," a Microsoft spokesperson said Friday. "Mike will soon decide on his new name and Web site, and we have agreed to help redirect any traffic to his new Web site to ensure he does not lose any business." Rowe had posted a note to his infamous Web site earlier that declared, "All along I just wanted to prove a point that the small guy can win against the giant corporations." But who really came out ahead is unclear.
In return for Rowe giving up his http://www.mikerowesoft.com Web site (I still chuckle every time I see that name), Microsoft will cover the teenager's expenses, provide him with training on key Microsoft products, help redirect Web traffic to the new site (whose address has yet to be named), give him an Xbox video game console and the game library of his choice, give him a subscription to MSDN Universal, and invite Rowe and his family to the Microsoft campus in Redmond for an all-expenses-paid trip to a technology fair the company is hosting. Rowe originally asked Microsoft to pay him $10,000 for the site.