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Re: EU to decide on Microsoft fines by July

  • Subject: Re: EU to decide on Microsoft fines by July
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 07:08:00 +0100
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: schestowitz.com / MCC / Manchester University
  • References: <1149704495.952784.118110@j55g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <tiojl3-jkg.ln1@sirius.tg00suus7038.net>
  • Reply-to: newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • User-agent: KNode/0.7.2
__/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Wednesday 07 June 2006 22:00 \__

> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> <nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>  wrote
> on 7 Jun 2006 11:21:36 -0700
> <1149704495.952784.118110@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>> Quote:
>> --------------------------
>>  EU regulators will decide before the end of July whether they will
>> fine Microsoft up to euro2 million ($2.57 million) a day for not
>> obeying a 2004 antitrust ruling, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie
>> Kroes said Tuesday.
> 
> Side note: $13.47B/year = $36.9M/day.  The fine is therefore
> about a 7% cut into their profits -- at present.
> 
> http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=MSFT


"7 per cent", you say? That could make my old prediction a reality overnight
(some time in July). Several months ago I said that they would drop below 20
(the psychological barrier)  before the end of Q3. MSFT dropped 11% in just
one day due to increased spending, so it seems rather fragile.

And as several analysts said, "Microsoft has antitrust anxiety"

http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188701765&subSection=Operating+Systems


>> She said the European Commission was waiting to see what Microsoft had
>> done to comply with an EU order to share information with software
>> rivals that could help them make software compatible with the Windows
>> program.
>>
>> "We have made the agreement with the board of Microsoft that they
>> should fill in their homework," she said. "They have to deliver before
>> the summer break, so let's wait," she said.
>>
>> She said the trustee appointed to oversee Microsoft's compliance --
>> Professor Neil Barrett -- had told her Microsoft was "active" in doing
>> their homework.
>>
>> Microsoft was told to improve 12,000 pages of a technical manual
>> Barrett said needed a drastic overhaul to make it workable.
>>
>> Kroes said the Commission would stick to backdating the daily fine to
>> Dec. 15, when it charged Microsoft for not obeying the earlier ruling.
> 
> That's an additional slug of about $638.9 M.  That'll sting a little.


Looking at the bigger picture, these fines, just like any fine, are a way of
/forcing/ change of behaviour. That, I must stress, is the crucial factor in
this decision. Not only will Microsot be fined, but it will also be forced
to collaborate and interoperate openly with other servers. This happens to
include GNU/Linux and this will be used as a selling point, for Linux. The
PR damage is an entirely separate issue that cannot be discarded, either.


>> "They had a time-out in filling in their homework, but that doesn't
>> mean there's a time out for fines," she said.
>>
>> In December 2005, Microsoft lost a legal bid to stop antitrust
>> sanctions while it was appealing the ruling that obliged it to share
>> communications code with rivals, offer a version of Windows without
>> Media Player software and pay a record euro497 million (US$613 million)
>> fine.
>> ---------------------
>> End quote

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