To: Saturn V who wrote (259606 ) 4/8/2009 12:36:40 AM From: rudedog Read Replies (1) | Respond to Most of the arguments centered around tying, but in the course of discovery, it turned out that some vendors (Compaq in most cases) got very different pricing for desktop OS because of their volume of Server OS or other MS products. That started as a tying argument also, but then a number of situations surfaced where MS gave favorable discounts to some firms bidding on government contracts, usually those who proposed only a Microsoft solution. In the penalty phase, those situations were addressed by applying GSA pricing to any vendor bidding on a broad range of GSA contracts, effectively leveling the playing field when it came to licenses. For the OEMs, the structure forces identical pricing for given tiers, and the difference top to bottom is not large. In addition, many classes of marketing offsets were eliminated, primarily those that were simple unit based rebates. MDF is now linked mostly to market making and lead generation rather than sales activity.
