FC: Microsoft to-be-broken-up rumor shreds U.S. stock markets

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,35851,00.html

MS Breakup Rumor Shreds Markets
Wired News Report
5:00 a.m. Apr. 24, 2000 PDT
NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks opened lower Monday as concerns about the outlook 
for Microsoft Corp., the world's top software company, pulled down the 
technology sector.

The Nasdaq was off to one of its worst starts ever, falling over 200 points 
-- 3.6 percent -- to 3,443, less than an hour after the markets opened.
[...]



U.S. May Seek Sale of Microsoft Office
---
Conduct Could Be Subject
To Wide-Ranging Curbs
While Appeal Is Pending
By John R. Wilke

04/24/2000
The Wall Street Journal
Page A3
(Copyright (c) 2000, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
WASHINGTON -- Federal antitrust enforcers favor a forced divestiture of 
Microsoft Corp.'s Office software business as a way to restore competition 
in the software industry, said people who have been briefed on the proposal.
Microsoft also would be subject to sweeping restrictions on its conduct for 
a limited time until the unit could be spun off and while any court appeal 
of the breakup is pending, these people said.
Federal officials have been working on a remedy recommendation in the 
landmark antitrust case since a federal judge ruled against the company 
three weeks ago. These officials now have begun asking for feedback from 
personal-computer makers and others on a possible Office divestiture, 
signaling that they may settle on this approach to present to U.S. District 
Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who wants remedy proposals by Friday.
[...]


U.S., States Favor Plan To Split Up Microsoft ; Spinning Off Windows Is 
Under Consideration
James V. Grimaldi

04/24/2000
The Washington Post
FINAL
Page A01
Copyright 2000, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved
The Justice Department and 19 states are leaning toward asking a court to 
split Microsoft Corp. into two or three separate companies in a plan 
designed to end the software giant's monopoly in the U.S. computer 
industry, people familiar with the discussions said over the weekend.
The drafting of a breakup plan marks a dramatic moment in the two-year 
lawsuit and only the first time since the 1974 antitrust lawsuit against 
AT&T Corp. that the federal government has considered such a drastic 
proposal for a corporate lawbreaker.
[...]

04/24/00- Updated 08:36 AM ET
Justice leaning toward Microsoft breakup
By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
In a turnabout, the Justice Department is leaning toward asking a federal 
judge this week to break up Microsoft along product lines, say people 
familiar with the case.

The 19 states suing Microsoft have not made a final decision, but officials 
expect most will concur with the recommendation that a breakup is an 
appropriate penalty in the antitrust finding against the company.
[...]

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