Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Few Takers For Microsoft's Settlement Cash

Posted by timothy on from the there-would-be-these-hoops-see-to-jump-through dept.

Makarand writes "According to this article on SiliconValley.com very few claims have been received to claim money from a Microsoft antitrust settlement in California. Only about 4% of the estimated 14 million eligible California consumers have bothered to file a claim till now. The deadline for filing claims is officially April 28 but is likely to be pushed back into May or June. Either, consumers have found the claims process too confusing, time-consuming and discouraging to keep them from making a claim or they are waiting till the last minute to file(like taxes). According to the settlement one-third of the unclaimed money will be kept by Microsoft and the rest will be given to Californian schools."

3 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. Microsoft is a public company by skidoo2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Microsoft is a public company. With millions of shareholders. That is, millions of owners. You want to own a piece of it yourself, and have voting rights regarding the company's future? Go buy a block of stock.

    I know I'll probably get modded down and get all kinds of bad karma for this, but I hate to see /. dominated by so much misplaced anger.

    Microsoft is not just Gates and Balmer. It is a voice for a large number of people. It's this voice that gives Microsoft the power it has.

  2. I was eligible and didn't file - here's why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't believe class-action lawsuits truly benefit anyone except the lawyers, who are the only ones that will receive any useful prize from the settlement. So let them get their money from Microsoft without my help, and if California schools get my $3.77, or whatever paltry fractional amount would have been sent, great, at least the money is being re-pooled into a useful amount again.

  3. Like those rebates by Smidge204 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's almost like those rebate programs:

    1) Overprice your product and offer a rebate

    2) Bank on the fact that only a small percentage of customers actually mail in for the rebate, and do so correctly.

    3) Profit

    So MS's business model is looking more and more like:

    1) Do whatever you want and let others/the government file antitrust suits.

    2) Settle suits knowing almost nothing will be done to enforce/cash in on them

    3) Profit

    If Dubya wants to convince the public that the US economy is getting better, he should just designate litigation settlement income as a business sector instead of trying to classify burger flippers as "manufacturing jobs".
    =Smidge=