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Judge
orders Microsoft broken into two companies |
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June 9, 2000
WASHINGTON, JUNE 8 (AP) - A federal judge ordered the breakup of Microsoft Corp. in an antitrust case, declaring the software giant that spurred an explosion in home computing should be split into two because it "proved untrustworthy in the past." "Microsoft, as it is presently organized and led, is unwilling to accept the notion that it broke the law," U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson wrote as he ordered the most dramatic antitrust breakup since that of the U.S. telecommunications giant AT-and-T in 1984. An unrepentant Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, vowing an appeal, said the ruling shows "the government can take away what you have created if it proves to be too popular." He said the company would seek to block Jackson's order from taking effect during the appeals process. "This is the beginning of a new chapter in this case," added Gates, who would only be able to control one of the two companies mandated by the ruling.
Jackson's ruling came two months after he concluded April 3 the software company violated antitrust laws by using illegal methods to protect its monopoly in computer operating systems, stifling competition. He also found the company tried illegally to expand its dominance into the market for Internet browsers.
The judge gave the company four months to devise a plan to divide itself into two parts.
One company would manage the Windows operating system that helped make Gates a billionaire; the other would manage all of Microsoft's software, such as its Office Suite and the Internet browser that spurred the antitrust lawsuit filed by the Justice Department and 19 states. Justice Department antitrust chief Joel Klein said the government will seek an expedited hearing in the Supreme Court for Microsoft's appeal. A case with such serious market implications "should, one, benefit from Supreme Court review and, two, should benefit quickly so that the expectations can be settled, the remedy can go forward and the industry can move on," Klein said.
Microsoft
attorney William Neukom said the company will oppose any
attempt to send the case straight to the Supreme Court, saying the place
to argue it is in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia. That court ruled in Microsoft's favor in an earlier case. Jackson
must approve any request that the Supreme Court take the case
directly. In an interview with The Washington Post published on its Web
site Wednesday night, he said he is "favorably inclined" toward sending it straight to the Supreme Court.
Jackson also said he arrived reluctantly at his decision to break up Microsoft. "Given my personal preferences, I'd much prefer to have market forces accomplish as much of the remedy as could be done," Jackson said. "I've always thought the best remedy was the one the parties could have negotiated between themselves." |