What criteria does GitHub use to decide who gets discounted rates? Do companies over X emplopyees get a discount? Do Government agencies get a discount by default?
I don't think it is fair to make a judgement that this is a politically charged action rather than just business as usual.
” What criteria does GitHub use to decide who gets discounted rates?”
The decision to continue to service specific entities is a political move, same as selling weapons to Saudi Arabia or Iran, or the stance the NBA has taken with China regarding its pro-HK player. It’s why finance institutions have some amount of checking that they’re not being used to help wire funds to terrorist groups.
In my opinion, an American company selling to an American government agency is wildly different than an American company selling to a foreign government.
Discounts are used to get a foot in the door for possible expanded role and future business calling it "Political" does not make sense.
Now government discounts are common way if you are expanding to Federal or State government clientele. For Enterprise the discounts will have a different name or flavor thats about it.
If some one prove a case that a rabid anti-immigration activist salesman or executive gave this service pennies on dollar to ICE, you can argue for walking back on this contract, otherwise its Enterprise Sales doing what it is supposed to do.. make it rain and improve top-line.
Right, but at the same time selling arms to Saudi Arabia has been heavily criticized for example, even though that’s supposed to be just sales doing its own thing.
That's just how sales work though, isn't it? Many other clients get "discounted rates" as well because the contract itself matters more than the amount most of the time.
While I see your point, and have some very mixed feelings on this whole subject, I'm not sure that enterprise sales and negotiation should be seen as a political move rather than just part of how this sort of business works.
What is the difference between actively pursuing sales with ICE and companies selling arms to Saudi Arabia or investing in Saudi oil, or actively pursuing sales with China such that the NBA apologizes for pro HK messaging from a player and Overwatch stripped all winnings from a winner of a tournament for pro HK messaging?
As I said, I am not expressing an opinion on how right or wrong it is to sell to ICE, simply that the _discount_ is probably not a political move, just regular enterprise software sales where a bulk discount is common.
Renewals often come with a discount during negotiations. There's no way to known what the motives were. A large media company I worked for had a large discount, it was business not them supporting the liberal left media.
