EU tells Microsoft to settle by June

THE EUROPEAN UNION has formally told the software giant Microsoft that it has one week to comply with its anti-trust orders or face a wacking great fine.

Yesterday we reported that Microsoft had weeks not months to make an agreement with the EU, now it turns out that the Commission is getting a mite impatient.

Originally, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer quietly agreed to have the whole lot sorted out at the end of May, and it looks like the EU is holding him to his word.

European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told Reuters that Microsoft has agreed to reach an agreement by the end of this month. If it doesn't then it's "the end of the game," she said.

That could mean that the Mighty Vole will have to pay up to $5 million per day into the EU coffers. Kroes declined to say whether it planned to start imposing fines from the start of June.

Vole has yet to provide information that would enable other software makers be interoperable with Windows servers cheaply enough.

The Reuters story is here. µ