Under the settlement, Microsoft will pay a total of 1.6 billion USD, including 700 million USD to resolve pending antitrust issues, and 900 million USD to resolve patent issues between it and what sometimes looked like archrival Sun.
But the sun does not shine that bright for Sun: it warned that its earnings would be much less than expected, and that it will again cut over 3.000 jobs. Fortunately for Sun, that bad news will be overshadowed by the good news of the settlement with Microsoft, at least for today. Sun's shares jumped over 20% on friday 2nd of April.
But the settlement is really good news for Sun and Microsoft, as they can now bury the hatchet, put this legal battle behind them and start with a clean sheet. They also announced a pact that "will stimulate new products and cooperation, to the benefit of customers of both companies".
What this really means is unclear at this moment, but it looks like Sun and Microsoft will compete more pragmatically, and will no longer avoid win-win relationships. Are we dreaming if we think about better interoperability between MS Office and StarOffice, and between .NET and Java, maybe even up-to-date Java support on all of Microsoft's newest operating systems ??
As always, The Register has the best coverage ...
Posted by Patrick Van Renterghem at April 2, 2004 04:11 PM