Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: djane who wrote (47070)	5/18/1998 2:26:00 AM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Forget Pakistani's and their bomb threats, how about this one: ft.com <<< MONDAY MAY 18 1998ÿÿAmericasÿ Microsoft set for legal warfare By Louise Kehoe in San Francisco and Richard Wolffe in Washington The US government is today expected to launch a landmark legal battle against Microsoft, the world's largest software company, after compromise talks collapsed at the weekend. In the biggest antitrust case for 15 years, the US justice department and 20 state attorneys-general plan to charge the software company with abusing its market power in order to crush its competition. The lawsuits will allege that Microsoft has illegally sought to extend its monopoly in operating software to dominate other markets. Windows, Microsoft's flagship product, is the operating software installed on more than 90 per cent of the world's personal computers. The government and state cases have been drawn up separately but focus on similar issues - in particular, Microsoft's bitter competition over internet software with Netscape Communications, the pioneer of easy-to-use internet browsers. As the talks ended in recriminations on both sides, Microsoft said it would press ahead today with the first deliveries of Windows 98, its latest version of the software, to personal computer makers. The government could still delay the shipping of Windows 98 with any last-minute legal manoeuvres, but the company said it did not anticipate such action. Retail sales are planned to begin on June 25. Windows 98 was at the centre of the weekend's failed talks between Microsoft, the federal government and state attorneys. In particular, government lawyers argued that the design of the new product will stifle competition in internet software by packaging and integrating Microsoft's browser with Windows. Antitrust officials at the justice department attempted to negotiate more freedom for PC makers to change the appearance of the desktop display, which consumers see when they switch on. Microsoft said it walked away from the settlement negotiations when faced with "unreasonable demands". Bill Gates, chairman and chief executive, said: "What the government is asking would significantly hamper us from competing through innovation and would put everything we have worked for and built in the past 23 years at risk." Microsoft claimed federal and state regulators had "asserted that making the Windows operating system work well with the internet was somehow illegal". The company said it balked at government demands that it effectively separate its internet browser program from Windows and install links to competitors' software in place of Microsoft programs. It said it was being forced to include rival internet browsers with every copy of Windows, which was "like telling Coca-Cola it must add three cans of Pepsi to every six-pack". Government sources denied they had demanded such conditions about rival software, and merely discussed the issue. They insisted the talks collapsed when Microsoft withdrew concessions it had earlier offered. Today's expected lawsuit, which the justice department hopes will ensure competition in the fast-growing market of internet commerce, will be the biggest since the 1984 breakup of AT&T, the telecommunications giant. >>>>