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

To: Thunder who wrote (39858)	3/26/2000 3:00:00 AM
From: Chung Lee	Respond to of 74651

"Sources close to the government said a detailed settlement proposal that MICROSOFT sent Friday to the U.S. Justice Department, 19 states and the District of Columbia, was inadequate because the company failed to acknowledge any antitrust wrongdoings...." May be MS needs to brush up on Article I, section G VBG "to develop criticism and self-criticism, boldly lay bare shortcomings and strive for their removal; to combat ostentation, conceit, complacency, and parochial tendencies; to rebuff firmly all attempts at suppressing criticism; to resist all actions injurious to the state, and to give information of them to Party bodies....;"

To: Thunder who wrote (39858)	3/26/2000 3:44:00 AM
From: Jason Ellis	Respond to of 74651

Microsoft, U.S. Remain Far From Reaching Agreement, People Familiar Say By James Rowley Microsoft, U.S. Remain Far From Reaching Agreement, People Say Washington, March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. and the government remain far from reaching a settlement on antitrust charges as the trial judge prepares to render his verdict in the case against the world's largest software company, people familiar with the situation said. U.S. Justice Department and state antitrust enforcers planned to spend the weekend studying a technically complicated proposal that Microsoft submitted late yesterday for settling the case without breaking up the company, people said. The pace of settlement discussions through a mediator quickened after the trial judge, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, informed both sides he was prepared to issue his verdict on Tuesday unless given a compelling reason to delay its release. Antitrust enforcers who had planned to travel to Chicago Friday to meet with the mediator stayed in Washington to evaluate the company's latest offer, people said. No talks were scheduled with the mediator, U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner, people said. The Justice Department and Microsoft have refused to comment on the mediation process. The U.S. Justice Department and 19 states have accused the software giant of illegally defending its Windows domination of Microsoft personal computer operating software. Jackson, who found Microsoft had a monopoly for its Windows operating system, is widely expected to rule that the company's business practices violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. Such a ruling could make it easier for plaintiffs lawyers in more than 100 class-action suits against the company. Most were filed since November, when Jackson concluded that Microsoft took repeated steps to thwart challenges to its Windows monopoly. Breaking Up The company has resisted suggestions that it be broken up, a scenario that antitrust enforcers have said they would consider as a remedy, given the strong findings made by Jackson. If it wouldn't accept a breakup, government negotiators told Microsoft it could not settle the case without accepting stringent restrictions on how it does business, people said. The remedies would have to address a wide range of business practices that Jackson identified in his factual findings as anti- competitive, the people said. Such remedies might include requirements that Microsoft charge computer makers the same prices, adjusted for volume discounts and other marketing considerations, to install Windows and disclosure of interfaces that software writers use to develop application programs that run on Windows. It was not specifically known what Microsoft has proposed by way of conduct remedies, though people said the company was offering to give computer manufacturers more choices on how to install Windows, which powers more than 95 percent of the world's computers. Conduct Remedies Attorneys general for the 19 states are divided on whether to insist upon a breakup or accept so-called conduct remedies. A 1994 consent decree between the government and Microsoft ended up in a court dispute over whether it prevented the company from integrating the web browser into the operating system. Such skepticism is warranted because ``there are enormous problems with relying on conduct remedies,' said Michael Morris, a vocal critic of Microsoft who has advocated a ``structural' solution such as a breakup. Consent decrees that curb certain business practices ``are not self-enforcing. The government has to go in and ask the court to enforce that' if it believes certain provisions are being violated. The ``wealth of intent evidence' of Microsoft's plans to stifle competition that surfaced in company e-mails presented during the trial, makes conduct restrictions ``of dubious value,' Morris said. Shares of Microsoft fell 3/16 to 111 11/16 in trading Friday on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.