Unlike the US States and the Bush administration, it looks like Microsoft (and Steve Ballmer in particular, after staying in Brussels for over 2 days, and hence missing his keynote speech at the Microsoft Management Summit) will not be able to sway European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti.
"By setting a legal precedent in the current antitrust case against Microsoft, the commission will make it easier to pursue Microsoft in future antitrust cases", Monti added. Microsoft will probably have to pay a hefty fine of 3.5 billion USD, sell 2 versions of Windows to PC manufacturers, and open up its secret Windows code to rivals for better interaction.
In a statement following the breakdown of the settlement talks, Microsoft says that it was unable to agree with the EU on principles for new issues that could arise in the future.
New issues are already under investigation at the EU, and Monti clearly did not want to endanger such future discussions with a settlement today.
More at eWeek about the breakdown, while Gartner expects that the antitrust ruling will not have any noticeable effect on Microsoft and its customers.
Posted by Patrick Van Renterghem at March 18, 2004 09:33 PM