"TAP não sobrevive se se mantiver pública", garante Pinto Luz

[homemdoswarrants]

EU's Microsoft Decision Leans on Rivals' Evidence )
April 21, 2004 18:52 EDT -- The European Commission's antitrust ruling forcing Microsoft Corp. to strip its audio and video player from some versions of Windows relied exclusively on evidence from the company's competitors, according to the written decision.

[homemdoswarrants]

Microsoft To Extend Key Element of Antitrust Settlement

April 21, 2004 1:35 PM








By Mark Wigfield
Dow Jones Newswires


WASHINGTON -- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) offered Wednesday to extend a key element of its antitrust settlement with the government for two years, to November 2009.

Microsoft made its offer before the federal judge, who in November 2002 had largely blessed the company's settlement with the Justice Department and 17 states of a landmark 1998 antitrust lawsuit.

Microsoft said the extension was a response to complaints from the Justice Department and competitors, who said the licenses offered under the settlement for communications protocols between Microsoft's dominant Windows personal computer operating system and network server software were too complicated and too limited. Allowing non-Microsoft server software to communicate easily with Windows was seen as a way to bring more competition to the personal computer market dominated by Microsoft and to prevent it from dominating the server software market.

But only 14 companies have licensed the protocols, largely for limited use rather than general purpose server software. Microsoft last week said it had simplified and broadened the licenses, and also had improved technical documentation.

But during Wednesday's status conference on the settlement, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she was concerned that the delay "reduces the useful life" of the settlement. "I had hoped for quicker results."

Determining the effect the settlement has had on the marketplace "is very complicated," Judge Kollar-Kotelly said. But she added, "As long as the number of licensees continues to grow, the goals appear quite viable."

The extension will also apply to Microsoft's successor to its dominant Windows software for servers and clients, code-named "Longhorn." However, government enforcement of the settlement won't continue beyond the November 2007 expiration date.

Companies that license the protocols from Microsoft will be able to choose binding arbitration as the mechanism to resolve disputes at the time they sign the licenses, Microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel, Mary Snapp, told reporters. Otherwise, disputes would be resolved through the courts.

Microsoft critics voiced doubts that the extension would make much difference.

While the extension "blunts criticism, nobody can point to a single area where competition has been improved" because of the settlement, said Mike Pettit, president of ProComp, a trade association whose members include a number of Microsoft competitors.

But Justice Department attorney Renata Hesse said Microsoft's new protocol license "is an improved product." And Microsoft's proposal to extend the licenses could help resolve the problems "relating to delayed implementation."

Judge Kollar-Kotelly said a decision earlier this month by Microsoft arch-rival Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) to license the protocols for general-use servers "is a major addition" to the roster of licensees. But Steve Houck, an attorney representing California and eight other states that had initially challenged the settlement, noted that Sun licensed the protocols as part of a broader private antitrust settlement in which the company received $2 billion from Microsoft.

Outside of that agreement, "Sun would have been unlikely to take the licenses," Mr. Houck said.

While the settlement is moving in a positive direction, "the jury is still out," he said, on whether competition will increase. "We'll see what Sun does with the licenses."

In an interview with reporters, Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner said there was "no quid pro quo" in the Sun settlement forcing the company to license the Microsoft protocols.

-By Mark Wigfield, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-828-3397; Mark.Wigfield@dowjones.com


(END) Dow