Microsoft Gives In On Antitrust Claims; Will It Make A Difference?
from the probably-not dept
Just a week after dropping an appeal on an antitrust ruling in South Korea, Microsoft has now agreed to the EU's antitrust ruling. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise, as Microsoft's appeal had already been smacked down by the EU courts. While this may appear to be something of a shift from Microsoft's more common willingness to fight these sorts of things to the end, it really shouldn't be that surprising. At some point, the company had to realize that things weren't going to get any better. And, at the same time, Microsoft had really held out for long enough on many of these issues. The remedies (beyond the fines) in the EU don't appear to be all that onerous and, if anything, should actually make Microsoft's operating system somewhat more attractive to purchasers in Europe, as it could make it easier for other applications to work well on the Microsoft platform. So, while some in the press are saying that Microsoft "blinked," it seems more accurate to say that it was able to drag the process out for long enough to serve its own purposes.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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But They Did
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Let's review this matter again in a few years
The EU would be far better served if they would simply use standards, in particular the Open Document Format. Leave the proprietary formats where no Sun shines.
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Re: Let's review this matter again in a few years
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Enemy of my enemy is my friend
That being admitted, I don't want a bunch of socialist handwringers who can't compete in the capitalist world telling a US company what they can, can not and must do. The EU pulled that crap with GE and its attempted merger with Honeywell back in 2001.
I think I'll show my support and buy a copy of XP (Vista is still too bloated) for my next laptop. Up yours EU.
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