[Am-info] Gates paid $20m to adversary in anti-trust case

[Erick Andrews]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1358674,00.html

Mark Tran Wednesday November 24, 2004

Microsoft paid $20m (œ10.6m) to one of its fiercest critics, the
Computer and Communications Industry Association, after the group
dropped out of an EU anti-trust case against the software giant,
it emerged today.

The CCIA abruptly withdrew from the EU's legal battle with
Microsoft two weeks ago.  The European commission fined Microsoft
a record Õ497m (œ345m) in March for abusing its dominant position
and ordered the company to sell a version of its Windows operating
system without its Media Player audiovisual software.  Microsoft
has appealed against the ruling.

In addition to the CCIA, Novell, a software rival to Microsoft,
also settled its dispute with Microsoft.  Novell received $536m
(œ285m) from the software giant.  The CCIA and Novell are the
latest parties to bury the hatchet with Microsoft in the EU
antitrust case.

Microsoft previously spent $2.4bn (œ1.3bn) settling claims by Time
Warner and Sun Microsystems.  Although the amount paid to the CCIA
is tiny compared to the other settlements, its significance lies
in the fact that the CCIA has long been a thorn in the side of
Microsoft.

When the software giant was the subject of a landmark antitrust
battle in the US, the CCIA provided much of the intellectual
ammunition against the software giant.  The CCIA's president, Ed
Black, was also a vocal critic of Bill Gates in the media, often
appearing on television and radio to attack Microsoft.

Of the $20m Microsoft paid to the CCIA, Mr Black received $9.7m,
reports said today.  The CCIA payment was "a reimbursement for
certain legal and related expenditures that it had incurred,"
Microsoft said, adding that the money was for the CCIA as a whole
and that it had no idea how it would be allocated.

The sole remaining company opposing Microsoft before the EU is
RealNetworks , maker of rival audiovisual software Real Player.
David Stewart, a senior lawyer with RealNetworks, told Dow Jones
Newswires that it and other companies "remain resolved to support
the (EU) decision and protect consumers."

The judge hearing Microsoft's appeal against the commission's
ruling has called for a closed meeting tomorrow to consider the
impact of the latest defections.

The meeting will include not only the current parties to the case
but also those who have dropped out.  Judge Bo Vesterdorf, who is
handling the appeal, wants to know how to handle confidential and
other documents offered by the parties who have withdrawn and how
to handle their views now.

The EU insisted that its case remained intact, amid speculation
that it was unravelling,

"Just the fact that certain parties have withdrawn from the
proceedings doesn't change the facts of the case at all," Jonathan
Todd, the EU antitrust spokesman, told the Associated Press.
"Hence the proceedings will follow their normal course at the
court."

-- 
Erick Andrews