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

To: Captain Jack who wrote (41603)	4/8/2000 9:08:00 AM
From: Captain Jack	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

But the case is effecting the decisions of some companies. We really should attempt to sue Jackson,,,LOL!!!! Apr. 07, 2000 (InformationWeek - CMP via COMTEX) -- Microsoft president and CEO Steve Ballmer says the software maker is just misunderstood. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled last week that the company violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by illegally tying its Web browser to Windows and choking competition in the operating-system market. But Microsoft's success, Ballmer argued during a conference call, comes from delivering useful software at low prices. "Our intense focus on moving forward has at times been seen as threatening, and our passion for being the best has been misinterpreted, " he said. "We can do better, but that doesn't mean innovating any less or delivering less value for consumers." That's a long way from his "to heck with Janet Reno" commentary on the case two years ago. Meanwhile, Ballmer says he plans to meet with customers and industry partners during the next few weeks to reassure them that Microsoft's legal situation won't affect its ability to deliver new products. "Customers want to know that we have a future," he says. In fact, most customers seem to take that for granted. According to an InformationWeek Research survey of 200 business and IT managers last week, 81% say Microsoft's legal situation will have no impact on their plans to buy the company's products, up slightly from 78% in a November survey. Likewise, nearly three-quarters of respondents say the court's ruling on Microsoft's competitive practices won't threaten its ability to innovate, up from 57%. "My company's feeling is that it's more of a consumer issue," says Keith Cooper, director of IT at Insight Enterprises, a $1.5 billion computer reseller in Tempe, Ariz. That's despite the fact that a third of IT managers say Microsoft's business practices have had a negative impact on their business, according to the poll, up from 27% in November. Jackson last week set a May 24 hearing date to determine penalties in the case. Following the decision, Microsoft plans to file an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington. Jackson has already been overruled once in the case, when the appeals court in June 1998 overturned his preliminary injunction ordering Microsoft to ship a version of Windows without a Web browser. Adding to the blase corporate attitude, it doesn't appear likely that the Justice Department and 19 states suing Microsoft will request a breakup of the company-the more irreversible the penalty, the more likely it will be stayed on appeal, legal experts say. And restrictions that Microsoft has already agreed to in principle during mediation talks-unbundling Internet Explorer from Windows and letting PC makers fold third-party software into the operating system, albeit without technical support from Redmond-don't hit many business customers' hot buttons. At a time when Microsoft needs to concentrate on making the transition from packaged software to Web-based services, "they've got the Justice Department dragging them back into issues they had to deal with four years ago," Meta Group VP Steve Kleynhans says. Yet the specter of a Microsoft breakup, however remote, is giving some companies pause. An IT manager at a large Midwestern industrial distributor says the case "is changing the way we look at back-end systems." The company chose IBM's WebSphere application server instead of Microsoft's for an online product catalog slated to go live this week. Though Microsoft's development tools and Web products work well together, "We turned away as soon as we realized they were probably not going to win the case," he says. "If the Web and development environments don't stay together, will the technology diverge? We know IBM isn't going to get split up."

To: Captain Jack who wrote (41603)	4/8/2000 9:15:00 AM
From: abbigail	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Hy Jy Cap'n! "All at once, the Justice Department was not only going to have to defend the government's contention that Microsoft illegally stifled competition, but it now has to provide good reasons why the company should be broken up, which is the remedy that appears to be the government's goal..." In a perverse sort of way, softee's deathrow position provides solace because whatever doj and jj do just doesn't matter AND it ain't gonna hurt! "Come and get me jj!" abbigail <:]