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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (45461)	2/2/1999 8:30:00 PM
From: Earlie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

CB: Timing couldn't be better. Had an interesting discussion a few weeks back with a very high ranker at MSFT who thought an article that commented on their put option selling scam was "inaccurate", "misleading" etc. It wasn't. He also didn't see anything wrong with the liability of close to $8.0 billion that it created. (no big deal, because they have a great deal more cash in the hopper than that amount)). I asked him how much he thought the government might syphon off before this case is done,...$5.0 billion? $10 billion? He did not care to speculate. Big Bill's ego is going to cost him and his shareholders plenty. It's not for me to comment on the merits of the case, but MSFT will be lucky if the settlement doesn't reduce that cash horde by a significant amount. Hard to believe that the market hasn't considered what this one will cost. How many states are involved? And the Feds as well you say? That's a lot of milking machines for even a rich cash cow to accommodate. Best, Earlie