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

To: rudedog who wrote (63191)	11/20/2001 1:28:47 PM
From: Jim Lamb	Respond to of 74651

Microsoft Reaches Antitrust Settlement By Peter Kaplan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) said on Tuesday it had reached a deal to settle a raft of private antitrust cases against the company, which sources said would cost the software firm more than a billion dollars. The agreement with class action attorneys would require the company, which agreed to settle its separate 3-year-old case with the Justice Department (news - web sites) earlier this month, to provide free software and computers to more than 14,000 of the poorest U.S. schools over five years, sources close to the case said. Microsoft declined to discuss the details ahead of a teleconference with reporters scheduled for 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT). The deal would settle claims that Microsoft abused its monopoly over personal computer operating systems and overcharged millions of people for software. The settlement proposal came from one of the lead plaintiffs' lawyers in the case, Michael Hausfeld, who concluded that each of the 65 million computer buyers represented would receive as little as $10 in a settlement or court victory, one source said. The deal has some upside for Microsoft: It would provide a big public relations boost for the company and help promote its software in public schools, sources said. Even more importantly, settlement of the private claims could increase pressure on the remaining state attorneys general who are still pursuing Microsoft in the government case, another source said. The company reached a settlement designed to restore competition in the personal computer software market with the U.S. Justice Department on Nov. 2 and nine of the 18 states involved in the case followed within days. A federal appeals court in June upheld a lower court ruling that the company used illegal tactics to maintain its Windows operating system monopoly. With the private settlement, Microsoft can now portray the remaining states in the government case as isolated hold-outs, one source predicted. The giveaways would go to any school with at least 70 percent of its children on subsidized school lunch programs, sources said. Estimates of the value of the settlement ranged from $1.1 billion to as much as $1.7 billion, one source said. ``It's going to get money to the people that need it the most,'' this source said. Attorneys for the two sides expect to file the agreement in federal court in Baltimore on Wednesday, the source said. Class action attorneys in California are opposing the deal, arguing that it does not adequately reimburse consumers in that state, according to one source. Nor does the deal absolve Microsoft from antitrust claims stemming from its new Windows XP (news - web sites) operating system, the source said. But if the deal is approved by U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz, about 100 private antitrust claims will be dropped. Email this story - View most popular \| Printer-friendly format Earlier Stories Microsoft Said Near Private Settlements (November 20)