Microsoft still hopes to settle with EC, exec says
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CANNES, FRANCE -- Microsoft Corp. still hopes to settle with the European Commission over the sanctions ordered against it to correct its anticompetitive behavior, even as its appeal of the case winds its way through the legal channels, a senior company executive said Monday.
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The European Data Protection Supervisor says he expects the U.S. and the European Union to reach an agreement on how to share information about passengers flying across the Atlantic -- but not by the July deadline.
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BRUSSELS: The European Commission said its antitrust case against Microsoft will move full speed ahead despite Microsoft settlements on Monday with Novell and an embattled trade group.
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(InfoWorld) - Ever wondered why Microsoft software needs continually to be patched and updated? Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie believes it's because software development is still more an art than a science. Mundie was speaking on one of his first foreign trips since taking over the technology strategy and policy roles from iconic company founder Bill Gates, at a press briefing in Brussels late Monday billed as a glance into the future of the technology industry. Expect as many fundamental changes in technology as we have seen over the past 20 years to occur in the next five to 10 years, he said. We are entering a multidevice environment where mobile phones get smart, and people will demand both integration and segregation of their various computing devices, he said. Web services will become vital in this new age and Microsoft "will have to master how to use the Internet and components of the net for software services," Mundie said. But isn't Microsoft racing too fast into this brave new world when its core product, the Windows operating system, can't even function properly without having to be patched up and updated constantly? he was asked. "The problem is that software development is an important endeavor but it has not matured as an engineering process, it's still an art form," Mundie replied. "As the scale of software grows, so does its complexity. Software has to find, in the next five to 10 years, a simultaneous solution to complexity and concurrent (parallel) problems," he added. How does Microsoft feel about having to follow Google's leadÂ in the new environment where Web services play such a central role in mapping the future direction of technology development? Claims that Microsoft has lost its leading position are exaggerated, he replied, just as they were in 1994-95, when Netscape was seen as the next great thing in information technology. Does Microsoft plan to do to Google what it did to Netscape? (Netscape was eclipsed when Microsoft attached its own Web browser, Internet Explorer, to Windows, sparking anÂ antitrust battleÂ with the U.S. department of Justice.) "I hope so," Mundie replied. Antitrust is one policy area that doesn't fall under his remit and he declined to comment on theÂ ongoing disputeÂ with competition regulators including the European Commission. However, he couldn't resist the opportunity to disparage the work of Europe's top antitrust officials. "There is no country, including the European Union and every other part of the European Commission (other than its competition department), that doesn't see Microsoft as an important player in the broad economic realm," he said. He added that the company's ongoing antitrust problems in Europe have not hampered its efforts to influence policy. "I've never felt that people are shunning our involvement because of that dispute," he said. Mundie was in Brussels to give a keynote speech at a conference on European venture capitalism, hosted by Microsoft. During his visit to the European capital he said he met with the staff of European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, as well as civil servants in the information society department of the Commission -- not quite the top level meetings enjoyed by Gates on his occasional visits to Brussels in recent years.ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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As judgment day in the nine-year-long antitrust battle between Microsoft and the European Commission draws near, neither side in the protracted dispute knows for sure how it will react to the news on the day.
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Despite numerous out-of-court settlements with various state governments around the country, it appears Microsoft&#39;s legal woes aren&#39;t over yet.
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Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) will begin immediately to comply with sanctions imposed by the European Commission, following a decision handed down today by Europe's Court of First Instance (CFI), but the company still holds out hope that it eventually will be vindicated.
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The European Commission (EC), which fined Microsoft a record 497 million euros (US$625.50 million) this year for abusing its dominant position, on Monday vowed to continue pursuing the US software group through the courts for anti-competitive behavior.
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Microsoft Corp. said on Monday it would not appeal a European Union court order to immediately implement antitrust sanctions, but that it remained optimistic it would eventually prevail in its main case.
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On the eve of a crucial hearing in its European antitrust case, Microsoft&#39;s chief lawyer still hopes the case can be settled. That&#39;s one of several paths that Brad Smith is taking to get Microsoft through
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Microsoft MSFT.O said on Thursday it   remained on track to launch its Windows Vista operating system   in Europe in January but again asked the European Commission to   detail concerns it may have with the software.
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Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said the Windows Vista operating system is still on track for early January shipment.
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Microsoft Corp. said on Monday it  would not appeal a European Union court order to immediately  implement antitrust sanctions, but it remained optimistic of  eventually prevailing in its main case.
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The European Union&#039;s Competition  Commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Thursday she could see no  alternative to fining U.S. software giant Microsoft   for breaching the bloc&#039;s antitrust rules.
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Microsoft Corp.  is on track to  resolve this month its fight with European Union regulators  over its compliance with a 2004 antitrust ruling, the software  company&#039;s general counsel said on Wednesday.
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Microsoft Corp. said on Monday it  would not appeal a European Union court order to immediately  implement antitrust sanctions, but that it remained optimistic  it would eventually prevail in its main case.
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Microsoft Corp's chief counsel, briefing reporters in the lead-up to a European Union court hearing this week, said on Monday he remains hopeful the software giant's European antitrust case can be settled.