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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John F. Dowd who wrote (24894)	6/24/1999 9:52:00 PM
From: t2	Respond to of 74651

JFD, I watched the CNN report this evening. I guess they asked for some opinion from some legal expert. He stated the government did a great job. However, he did say that don't unestimate (or some words like) the points MSFT made in the trial. That to me sounds like the decision could go either way. MSFT's biggest ally may be the anti-trust laws themselves---either in Jackson's court or the appeals court. I think that is why the lawyers are not giving into the demands of the government in settlement talks. The other point is that a final ruling could come some time next year. That leaves them a lot of time to appeal it. We won't get all those negative headlines contantly. We will get the odd day here and there. MSFT can still drag this thing out for years if the DOJ does not get reasonable in settlement talks. I still believe the the DOJ/States wanted a good showing and they got it. Now they probably want to get out of the limelight fearing the influence of a very popular company. That is why MSFT does not have to fear those private lawsuits as much as some people think. This is not a tobacco or gun company. Those companies lose because the jurors have their negative opinions before getting to trial. In MSFT's case, those are likely to be neutral to positive especially if they hold index mutual funds showing top holding as MSFT. Remember index funds get more and more popular. I think this is a big key.