Predatory Microsoft gets result it wants

COLLEEN KOLLAR-KOTELLY, the judge reviewing the antitrust case which has bored the world for years now, delivered a handsome victory to Microsoft last night by ratifying the previous settlement brokered with the Department of Justice (DoJ).

All the documents are here, but were pasted to that site a full ninety minutes before Wall St shut up shop, prompting fevered trading on the NYSE by stocksters taking advantage of this situation.

It would be absurdly cynical to suggest this was anything but a mistake, wouldn't it?

She also threw out an attempt by nine dissenting American states which wanted her to give Bill Gates' firm a thorough thrashing, because, in her legal opinion, their allegations of more antitrust shenanigans didn't really belong with the earlier misdeeds.

One or more of the nine states are expected to lodge appeals against this decision, so more virtual pixel forests are likely to be felled in the future as this case grinds on.

George W. Bush' Attorney General John Ashcroft hailed the decision as a huge victory for consumers and business.

Some suspected that Bush and his administration had a hand in brokering that deal.

But in her judgement, Kollar-Kotelly warned Microsoft that if it didn't obey the letter of the law, its directors could find themselves in big trouble. What sort of big trouble, we're not sure. Would she put Bill over her knee and give him six of the best?

She said: "Promises have been made... that the company will change its predatory practices which have been part of its competitive strategy."

In fact, rather than having his buttocks beaten, it seems that His Billness has merely had his knuckles rapped, because MS issued a statement welcoming Colleen's decision.

It said: " We are pleased that the court has conditionally approved the settlement we reached with the federal government and the nine states. The settlement is a tough, but fair, compromise. It imposes significant requirements on Microsoft, but it enables us to continue to innovate and to create products that address the changing needs of our customers. We recognize that we will be closely scrutinized by the government and our competitors, and we will devote all the time, energy and resources needed to ensure that we meet our responsibilities."

Some would say that this recognition comes a little too late. While Microsoft's partner Intel has had the mechanisms in place to avoid being dragged through the mire we've seen Bill's firm go through, his firm decided to tough it out, and showed a fair degree of arrogance in taking on the Department of Justice full tilt. µ

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