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Microsoft To Pay IBM In Antitrust Settlement
Pankaj Arora writes "A settlement has been reached in IBM's private antitrust case against Microsoft. According to the terms of the settlement, Microsoft will pay IBM $775 million cash in addition to $75 million in credit. From the article, 'The settlement resolves all discriminatory pricing and overcharging claims stemming from the U.S. government's mid-1990s antitrust case against Microsoft, the companies said in a statement. The settlement also resolves most other IBM antitrust claims, including those related to its OS/2 operating system and SmartSuite products. IBM's claims of harm to its server hardware and server software businesses are not covered by the settlement, however.'"
That about sums up most of the posts that will be made to this article. However, I must say... is this really a good thing? 775$ million seems like piddly for a decade of monopolistic behavior, in a multi-billion dollar industry.
I wonder if IBM will pursue the hardware front as well.
Just a note. After their various settlements, dividend, and other items, Microsoft retains about $20 billion in a cash reserve.
This does not include this settlement with IBM.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
OS/2 Warp was great, I never saw any problems that weren't created by the user. One person did complain of "severe data loss" though, but it turned out they tried to install it over an existing DOS installation or whatever they had and formatted the disk in the process. I guess that's severe data loss. I don't think I don't recall ever seeing OS/2 crash though.
Just a simple wire transfer.
Of course, both sides set it up in advance so the banks know what's comming and going, but it's no different than other wire transfers.
HexaByte - he's a square and a half!
IBM spends a large amount of internal IT dollars to outfit its employees with Windows and Office. As I read this story, the $75M is a credit for amounts already spent. Not $75M of new stuff.
ps I am an IBMer.
You should also know that IBM, internally, plans to convert at some point over to Linux and open-source based platforms for its employees. There are pilot programs already underway.