FC: Why Microsoft would rather fight

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,35368,00.html

Why MS Would Rather Fight
by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)
9:05 a.m. Apr. 3, 2000 PDT

The collapse of settlement talks in the Microsoft case has depressed the 
company's stock and set the stage for a starkly pro-government ruling by 
the presiding judge on Monday.

If U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson releases a decision that 
condemns the software maker in the same uncompromising terms as nearly 
everyone expects, it is certain to embolden rivals and encourage a new 
spate of antitrust lawsuits by private litigants.

So why didn't Microsoft chairman Bill Gates settle this case and relieve 
his ongoing antitrust migraine?

The mostly likely reason: Gates has been there before. It didn't work.

An earlier settlement Microsoft had with the Justice Department backfired.

The 1994 deal lured Microsoft into a false sense of security. According to 
one lawyer close to the company, Microsoft's legal department truly 
believed it had ended its antitrust troubles for good.

But Department of Justice lawyers saw it differently, and sued the Redmond,
Washington-based firm in late 1997 for allegedly violating the consent 
agreement.

...

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