Microsoft largely unscathed after US antitrust ordeal
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Microsoft emerged largely unscathed from a long antitrust ordeal in the United States, as it successfully overturned on appeal a judge&#39;s ruling that would have broken up the world&#39;s biggest software firm.
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BRUSSELS/LUXEMBOURG  - Microsoft  suffered  a decisive antitrust defeat in Europe on Monday, sending its  shares down 2 percent in pre-market trade.
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In its regular progress report for Microsoft's compliance with the terms of its antitrust settlement, the US Justice Dept. stated today that it believes that since the settlement, there's significant evidence of a more competitive market unhindered by the presence or conduct of Microsoft.
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The European Court of First Instance has set a date of September 17 to rule on Microsoft's appeal of a 2004 antitrust verdict that forced it to pay over $600 million in fines and make changes to its Windows operating systems. Microsoft has maintained it did nothing anti-competitive.
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Microsoft early this morning dropped its decade-long antitrust battle with European regulators by agreeing not to appeal a landmark Sept. 17 court ruling.
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Europe's latest shot across Microsoft's bow shouldn't faze investors.
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BRUSSELS, Sep 21 (IPS) - Microsoft will still wield enormous power in the  global computer industry despite this week's ruling by a  European court that the Seattle-based corporation has abused its  monopoly.
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A European Union court upheld product curbs and a record fine levied by the EU's executive commission against software giant Microsoft for abusing its market dominance.
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Microsoft Corp. has made substantial concessions to the European Commission, finally bringing the company into compliance with a 2004 antitrust ruling, the Commission said Monday.
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To win its appeal for a stay on the antitrust penalties imposed earlier this year by the European Competition Commission, Microsoft Corp.
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Microsoft  suffered a decisive  antitrust defeat on Monday when a European Union court upheld a  landmark ruling that the world's largest software maker had  abused its dominant market position to crush rivals.
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Microsoft suffered a big setback this week in Europe. Should other large tech companies be worried?
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U.S. stocks were little changed on  Wednesday as a European antitrust ruling weighed on Microsoft  Corp. MSFT.O, offsetting a rise in Fannie Mae FNM.N after  its embattled chief executive stepped down.
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Microsoft Corp has settled antitrust differences with the Computer &amp; Communications Industry Association and Novell Inc, clearing the way for its appeal against the European Commission&#39;s antitrust commission.
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Microsoft last week announced antitrust settlements with Novell and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), ending years of legal wrangling.
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Microsoft was considered to have escaped lightly after the European Commission found it guilty in 2004 of bundling its media player software with Windows to the detriment of competition. It was ordered to sell a second version of Windows in Europe without its media player, but the new version was priced the same, few PC makers stocked it and the product effectively bombed in the market.People continued to buy the original version of Windows, complete with the media player, and the remedy did little to help Microsoft&#39;s rivals.With its fresh&#160;antitrust suit filed with the Commission this week, browser maker Opera Software is hoping for a tougher penalty to rein in what it sees as Microsoft&#39;s illegal bundling of its Internet Explorer (IE) browser with Windows. One legal expert said that this time around, Microsoft might not be so lucky.&quot;The landscape has changed quite a bit between Microsoft and the European Commission since the last ruling. If there&#39;s a replay of what led up to the 2004 ruling, and Microsoft takes similar positions regarding bundling, then I wouldn&#39;t be surprised if the Commission comes down harder now,&quot; said Chris Norall, a partner in the Brussels office of the law firm Morrison &amp; Foerster.Opera argues that because each version of Windows comes with only IE preinstalled, Microsoft has an unfair advantage against rivals like Opera and Firefox. That has helped it maintain a consistent market share on Windows PCs of around 80 percent, Opera contends.The Norwegian company now wants the Commission to come up with a tougher remedy to overcome Microsoft&#39;s advantage. If the Commission agrees that the bundling of IE is just as illegal as the bundling of Windows Media Player was in 2004, its remedy this time &quot;will be tougher, it will have teeth,&quot; said Norall, whose law firm is not involved in the Microsoft case.One possible outcome would be to make Microsoft offer a second version of Windows without Windows Media Player, and to sell it at a lower price than the &quot;complete&quot; version of Windows. That may give PC makers more incentive to offer it. Opera&#39;s preferred solution, however, is simply to force Microsoft to pre-load other browsers with Windows when it ships.&quot;In our minds, the best solution would be one version of Windows with a must-carry type of provision,&quot; said Jason Hoida, Opera&#39;s deputy general counsel.Microsoft is likely to fight that remedy fiercely. It says it will cooperate with the Commission&#39;s investigation, but argues, as it has before, that consumers benefit from bundling its browser with Windows. What&#39;s more, it notes, PC makers and consumers are free to install any other browser if they wish.Microsoft&#39;s position my be strengthened by the popularity of rival browsers in Europe, notably Firefox, which has reached a market share of close to 40 percent in some key markets, such as Germany, studies have shown. If Microsoft can argue that rivals to IE are gaining market share, it could help it persuade the Commission that antitrust intervention is not necessary.Opera responds that the growth of other browsers has been levelling out. &quot;Firefox has attracted a lot of users, especially in the open-source world, but it has not been climbing consistently,&quot; said Hakon Wium Lie, Opera&#39;s chief technology officer.In addition, he said, Opera&#39;s complaint is focussed on Windows PCs, where IE&#39;s share is higher, and not that of Linux or Macintosh computers. However, it is uncertain that the Commission will exclude Linux and Macintosh computers when it considers the relevant market in this case.Opera&#39;s position may be helped by the previous antitrust judgment against Microsoft. Three months ago the Court of First Instance endorsed the legality of the Commission&#39;s 2004 ruling when&#160;it threw out Microsoft&#39;s appeal. The Commission will examine the new complaint &quot;in light of the case law set in the Court of First Instance judgement,&quot; Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said Thursday.Opera expects the case to move along faster than the seven years it took to reach&#160;the 2004 decision, since the Commission has already deemed Microsoft to be a monopolist, and because Microsoft opted against a further appeal against that decision. &quot;There is an unappealed judgment, so we hope this will go faster,&quot; Hoida said.Thomas Vinje, a partner in the Brussels office of the law firm Clifford Chance, which is representing Opera in this case, said: &quot;The complaint is very short. It doesn&#39;t have far to look for a relevant legal precedent.&quot;In addition to the bundling charge, Opera also complains that Microsoft does not follow Web standards, putting rival browsers at a disadvantage. The issue is significant because if all Web browsers do not use the same standards, Web site developers are likely to design their Web sites to work with the most widely used browser, which is Internet Explorer. That gives people a disincentive to use other browsers.Microsoft often takes part in debates over Web standards, and says it will implement them, but ultimately does not, Opera&#39;s Lie said. He pointed to CSS, XHTML and DOM as areas where Microsoft does not comply with or is inconsistent.The Opera complaint is the second against Microsoft filed to the Commission since the 2004 ruling. In February 2006, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS)&#160;complained that Microsoft is foreclosing the market for productivity software&#160;with its Office package. Some expect more complaints to follow.&quot;The bundling issue is going to come up each time Microsoft adds a new feature to Windows. Will there be more complaints? Yes,&quot; said Norall.
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Plaintiffs in 2002 Iowa antitrust case say Microsoft has been complying with settlement.