A rchive Date
[ 07-06-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Microsoft ]
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Microsoft files final brief; clears way for ruling
Microsoft Verdict
Tuesday, June 6, 2000
SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT-O ) filed a fresh response to the Justice Department's breakup plan a day earlier than expected, clearing the way for a federal judge to make a final ruling in the protracted antitrust case.
In the filing Tuesday, Microsoft, disdainful of the department's response to the company's earlier concerns, asked U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to include previously suggested language that would give a broken-up Microsoft more freedom to enter into agreements with software developers and computer makers.
"Instead of agreeing to correct the many defects in the revised proposed final judgment, and thereby minimize the damage that its entry would inflict on a wide range of participants in the computer industry, the government has agreed to only a few cosmetic changes," Microsoft's attorneys wrote.
In the brief, Microsoft also said that DOJ was, in its recent filing, "confirming that certain provisions are more extreme than they might appear at first blush" and "blithely ignoring substantial problems Microsoft identified regarding the feasibility of complying with many of the provisions as drafted."
Microsoft was due to file the brief, expected to be the last in the case, on Wednesday. But company spokesman Jim Cullinan said the "cosmetic" filing by government made it easier to reply quickly.
In Washington, Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona said the company's filing "rehashes Microsoft's old arguments, ignores the extensive violations found by the court, denies the need for serious relief and grossly distorts our proposed remedy."
Jackson had been set to rule on the case - including whether to split the company into two parts - last week, but the department asked for more time so it could address clarifications brought up by the company.
In Monday's court filing, the department agreed to grammatical and semantic changes, but refused to concede to the company on major points such as giving Microsoft additional time to nail down details on how the breakup should occur, or more freedom in licensing and marketing its products.
The DOJ and 17 states have pushed to have Microsoft broken up into two separate companies - one to market and produce Windows, and the other to handle Microsoft Office and other applications software, along with the Internet Explorer Web browser.
In a ruling that shook the company, the industry and the markets, Jackson held April 3 that Microsoft engaged in anticompetitive conduct in violation of antitrust laws.
As his company was taking care of the last-minute legal work, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was in the nation's capital, appearing at a hearing on the future of high-technology in the United States and around the world.
Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., said that Gates, in a closed meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, suggested he anticipated an adverse ruling.
"He did seem to believe that the lower court is about to make an erroneous decision and that that decision would be appealed," Watt said, "and he seemed confident that the appeals process would work it out."
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Tex., another Congressional Black Caucus member, said: "I got the feeling that he felt that the judge was going to rule that they break up ... He did make a statement that would indicate that he felt that would happen."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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