Out-Law News

Microsoft’s last minute shot at the plan to break it in two


Microsoft has again attacked the proposal by the US Department of Justice to split the company into two separate companies in a new brief filed yesterday.

“The government has already admitted that the breakup of Microsoft would be ‘dangerous to the economy’s welfare’ and said the brief. The government proposal followed Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's ruling last month that Microsoft used its monopoly position to illegally crush competitors, harm consumers and stifle innovation.

Yesterday’s brief was the software company’s official response to last week’s brief filed by the government which attacked Microsoft’s claim that it should be allowed to remain intact.

The comments by the government are taken from a 1995 case against Microsoft. The company quoted from a government filing which said, “such remedies would not necessarily benefit competition and would ...act against the public.”

Microsoft argues that the government’s current position has more to do with punishing the company than protecting consumers.

Representatives of Microsoft and the Justice Department are due to meet in court tomorrow for a hearing on how the case should proceed. Microsoft has requested up to six more months to gather evidence and expert testimony to respond to the government’s remedy proposal.

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