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

To: John F. Dowd who wrote (37868)	2/14/2000 6:28:00 PM
From: John F. Dowd	Respond to of 74651

To All: Remember who told you who was behind this EURO thing first! Well here it is from the second source: Please read at least down to the end of the bold print. Microsoft Says EU Probe Won't Stop Windows 2000 REDMOND, WASHINGTON, U.S.A., 2000 FEB 9 (Newsbytes) -- By Steve Gold and Steven Bonisteel, Newsbytes. Microsoft Corp. [NASDAQ:MSFT] said today that news the European Union is putting its soon-to-launch Windows 2000 software under anti-trust scrutiny won't delay its much-anticipated release. In addition, Microsoft officials pointed their fingers at competitor Sun Microsystems Inc. [NASDAQ:SUNW] and accused the company of attempting to stir up legal trouble abroad. The European Union (EU) gave Microsoft a jolt this morning with the surprise announcement of the investigation. Windows 2000 is not actually launched until February 17, but was released to computer makers, retail software packagers and other manufacturers on Dec. 15. At a press briefing this morning, Mario Monti, the EU's competition minister, told reporters that he is concerned that the new operating system may breach EU antitrust (competition) rules by bundling a PC operating system with server software. In a reaction later today, Microsoft said it does not bundle the distribution of the client and server versions of its Windows 2000 products together. It said customers are free to purchase either product separately. "We have shared a wide array of technical information about Windows 2000 broadly with software developers, customers and competitors long before the product was ever released, and we are confident that the Windows 2000 desktop client is fully interoperable with other server operating systems," said Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel on international issues. Both the EU and US Department of Justice have raised warning flags over the almost inextricable bundling of Internet Explorer and Windows 98. The EU is wasting no time on its Windows 2000 probe and has given Microsoft just four weeks to respond allegations that the new bundling system could impede the growth of e-commerce. Microsoft said the EU request follows a complaint filed last year by Sun, in which it said developments in Windows 2000 desktop and server technology would make it harder for Sun to compete. Microsoft was "disappointed" by what it described as "Sun's continued efforts to lobby governments around the world to take action against Microsoft." "Sun wants new government action to overcome the fact that Microsoft's server technology provides a better price and performance value to customers," Smith said. "The irony is that we in fact have sent developers at Sun's request to visit their offices in California to provide them with technical information about our products, only to have Sun cancel the meeting and leave our developers sitting in their hotel rooms," he said. "Instead of competing in the marketplace, Sun continues to call for governments around the world to regulate more heavily the software development process, a change that we do not believe would serve well the fast-paced technological innovation that is today the driving force of the world economy." John Frank, director of European law and corporate affairs for Microsoft, said his company would be complying with the EU's request to supply additional information about its Windows 2000 systems. JFD