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Microsoft Settles Massachusetts Antitrust Suit 25

Posted by timothy from the and-fetch-my-shoes-boy dept.
krog writes "Boston.com is reporting that Microsoft has settled its antitrust suit in Massachusetts. The state was one of the last holdouts in the class action suit. The bounty? About $34 million, distributed among individuals (as opposed to businesses and government users). Not such a bad payoff, even if it is the scraps from Billy's table..."
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Microsoft Settles Massachusetts Antitrust Suit More

Microsoft Settles Massachusetts Antitrust Suit

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  • The best part is the precendent. I am sure that this will not stop further action being taken against M$ in the event that they do continue to damage other companies through delibrate anti-competative behaviour.

    It is terrible that the European ruling on Microsoft has managed to be suspended, but lets hope the momentum can pass it through. It must be chaotic at Redmond.

    *muahaha*cough*

    I wonder, does Microsoft have a problem getting good employees? I would think that most developers worth their salt would w

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • No I meant more of the fact that there is a large anti-microsoft feeling in the up and coming IT talent, and this perhaps is a great threat to Microsoft.

        Those with the talent do tend to embrace the technologies.

        Perhaps this carcinogenic intake of less than great talent into Microsoft (not aimed at you, if you work for them, well, heck, it is! ;-) is what will kill them.

        I mean, I wouldn't ever work for them! EvEr!

        Whats that Bill? How much? Erm... ok! :-)

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
          Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • No doubt about supporting Linux and MS, but working for them? I am just thinking that, although not everyone, there is a fairly large chunk of people who wouldn't work for Microsoft, and perhaps, not all of them, but many of them, are the top in their field.

            A small perceptual slump in the number of people in certain skill areas not wanting to work for Microsoft would possibly have a noticible effect with the management, they might start 'opening sources' to the code.

            To be honest, it is easier to look at M
        • I have an old friend that works for Microsoft (well, I have several, but this one's special) and he kept saying how everybody has a price. Then one day, Microsoft bought the company I worked for. 1066 million SEK (roughly $140 million USD) for ~100 people and a mobile Internet platform. That very same day I handed in my resignation (yes, this was in 1999). My boss persuaded me to stay on as a consultant for a while but I milked them good before I left. Best part was they cashed in my options program, nettin
          • *applause*

            Thank you for sharing. Here at AMA (Anti-Microsoft Anonymous) We share your pain, and we share youe hope as we too can sometimes screw them over :-)

            Cool website (webhackande.se) the only bit I could read was 'Cindy Crawford' :-$ :-)

    • I wonder, does Microsoft have a problem getting good employees? I would think that most developers worth their salt would work anywhere rather than for M$.

      If you'd thought for even fifteen seconds, you would've thought of at least one compelling reason to work for Microsoft: "I need money to buy food, and Microsoft is willing to give me money to work for them." It's not easy finding work in IT, no matter how good a programmer you are.

      Even with that aside, not all the world regards Microsoft with th

    • the money should just be a slap.. what's bad about this kind of settling is that it doesn't really make MS change it's act any cleaner at all, on the contrary it gives them an ok signal to keep doing what they've been doing all along.

      as to the employees, they get good money. there's enough of people wanting good money. besides, people are very good at twisting the world in their eyes so that they're the good guys.

      • "people are very good at twisting the world in their eyes so that they're the good guys."

        Good point, and as another poster said, you might actually try and make a difference.

        The problem is, you cannot truly develop under the limitations of immediate profitability.

        If you have worked on a large project, you know how much gets cut, rushed, 'tested' and pushed through.

        Times that by Microsoft. It isn't their fault, they are balancing everything for profit.

        It is just the everything we care about.
    • It's not $34 million. It's vouchers which can be used to buy hardware, Microsoft software, and non-Microsoft software.

      More than half the lifetime capital cost of a typical working PC is the software. And, because Microsoft has a monopoly on operating systems and on the most profitable applications (Microsoft Office), a good chunk of the software expenditure will go straight back to Microsoft. The total cost of this settlement to Microsoft is considerably less than $34 million. It's like a cheap promotion f

    • I wonder, does Microsoft have a problem getting good employees? I would think that most developers worth their salt would work anywhere rather than for M$.

      Maybe. At least it seems to have to work harder to retain any it might have still:

      From an earlier

      article [zdnet.co.uk]:

      Microsoft says about half of eligible employees have sold their underwater stock options, in the culmination of changes to its compensation methods

      ...

      Employees in the United States who are due to receive less than $20,000 from the prog

  • Better than Arizona settlement (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Qualifying Massachusetts consumers will receive vouchers used to buy any manufacturer's desktop, laptop and tablet computers; any software available for sale to the public and used with those products; and specified accessories for use with computers.

    So at least this settlement won't be further solidifying Microsoft's monopoly by only providing vouchers for Microsoft products. Go Massachusetts!

    • Sales of PS2's and GTA Vice City have suddenly gone up this morning, residents armed with M$ Vouchers gleefully ran over peds, shouting, "take that gates, you baaaa *cut*"
  • "The vouchers will go to those districts in which 50 percent or more of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches."

    Thanks Microsoft! When do I get to sue them?

    Basically 36 million in vouchers, people can buy IT stuff. Half of any not claimed goes to schools for IT quipt.
  • It is my understanding that when someone sues you, and you settle, that it is supposed to hurt you. But when MS settles lawsuits it only helps them.

    Under the settlement, Microsoft will give half the value of any unclaimed vouchers to Massachusetts' public schools.

    Ok MS, you've been a bad boy. We're going to punish you by putting your software in all of our public schools. This will ensure that are children grow up with your software and never find out about that penguin guy or that yummy fruit. That's

    • Re:Isn't it supposed to hurt? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by silicon not in the v ( 669585 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @12:17PM (#9571844) Journal
      I'm glad you haven't been modded up yet. You quote one line from the article, make a false assumption and apparently didn't read the VERY NEXT SENTENCE, which disproved what you ranted about. Let me quote those two sentences here with emphasis on the part you seem to have missed.
      Under the settlement, Microsoft will give half the value of any unclaimed vouchers to Massachusetts' public schools. Those vouchers may be used to buy
      hardware, Microsoft software and non-Microsoft software, and professional development services.
      Can we also look at this paragraph above that?
      Qualifying Massachusetts consumers will receive vouchers used to buy
      any manufacturer's desktop, laptop and tablet computers; any software available for sale to the public and used with those products; and specified accessories for use with computers.
      So these vouchers, claimed or unclaimed, can be used to buy barebones systems with no OS installed, or even PC's pre-installed with Linux? How about that? And it only took a little R'ing of TFA to find that out.

  • Last Holdout (Score:4, Insightful)

    by 4of12 ( 97621 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @10:47AM (#9570907) Homepage Journal

    IIRC, Massachusetts was the last state holding out for an appeal of the Justice Department's settlement with Microsoft.

    How has that settlement been working in practice?

    There seems to be simmering small changes and perturbations [infoworld.com] as the agreement is reviewed, such as protocol licensing (MCPP).

    Quoting from the Infoworld article:

    Microsoft still enjoys a 90 percent market share in the browser and desktop operating system markets, said Stephen Houck, representing the so-called California group of states that sued Microsoft in the antitrust case. The licensing program's effect on competition is difficult to find, he said.

    Kollar-Kotelly agreed. "At this point, it's difficult to measure its impact on the marketplace," she said.

    The changes to the program are largely cosmetic, Ed Black, president and chief executive officer of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, said after the hearing. The two-year extension of the licensing program is the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship, he said.

    If Judge Kollar-Kotelly finds the agreement not to be working effectively, then perhaps it's time for the court to review the agreement to see what changes might be made in order to effectively rectify the ongoing illegal monopoly and to restore a competitive marketplace.

  • Large coorporations\industries are quite simply just taking the "easy" way out. The same thing happened with Microsofts settlement in Arizona, just give what you don't want. The prime example of this is the RIAA giving it's leftover stock of unsold CDs to schools then getting a Tax write off for it. Some chairity.
  • Re-read the article. $34M in PRODUCT.

    That means that Microsoft gets to write off $300 for each of 120,000 copies of Office and XP Pro, while costing themselves $.50 for duplication and packaging of each CD.

    That $34M is going to cost Microsoft about $60K, and then they will make millions when the software they gave away comes due for upgrade and replacement.

    That's right, Microsoft Makes Money from their own prosecution!

    Oh, it's good to be the Gates.

    Bob-

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