02.27.08
Microsoft Owes the EU $2.5 Billion, More for Patent Abuses
Feelin’ the heat again…
Okay, so we pretty much knew about this a couple of days ago, but here it is officially: [Pointer from “CoolGuy”]
European antitrust regulators on Wednesday fined Microsoft $1.3 billion for failing to comply with a 2004 judgment that the company had abused its market dominance.
The new fine by the European Commission brings the total fines levied on Microsoft to about $2.5 billion in current exchange rates.
If you think that’s bad, consider Microsoft’s financial woes and be aware that it has just had a wound reopened — a fairly major patent lawsuit, whose target was Microsoft’s cash cow.
A federal court which hears patent appeals told a lower court on Tuesday to reconsider damages that Microsoft must pay a Guatemalan inventor for infringing his software in its popular Office Suite.
Despite the release of Server 2008 (which itself is bound to become a Vista-like disappointment, based on reports), this will be remembered as an appalling day for Microsoft, especially in the legal department. █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
Rui Miguel Silva Seabra said,
February 27, 2008 at 10:36 am
It seems it’s 1.3 thousand millions of Dollars (899 millions of Euros), so NY Times might have it wrong…
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/318&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
Roy Schestowitz said,
February 27, 2008 at 11:14 am
As shown earlier today (NYT loves Microsoft’s WPF), there’s reason to suspect that New York got the more convenient exchange rates.
[sarcasm /]Microsoft will try to slink away from this, as it does every time (mind the rebellious teenager analogy).
Rui Miguel Silva Seabra said,
February 27, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Well, they are not paying one euro cent so far, even though they claimed they wouldn’t fight it anymore.
So let’s see how much they end up paying
However, European Commission’s press release does talk about 899M €.
Rui Miguel Silva Seabra said,
February 27, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I retract myselft.
At Groklaw you can read a transcript
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080227141558652
… of the interview to Neelie Kroes:
http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/ebs/schedule.cfm?date=02/27/2008#s68899
And Neelie says that this 899M€ are on top of other fines. Total value is 1676700€ in 3 fines. This is over 2.5kM USD (this is US billion, for those who can count it’s thousands of millions
)
Roy Schestowitz said,
February 27, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Assuming Microsoft buys Yahoo (which hopefully it will not), then according to Microsoft Watch, the company’s debt would exceed $10 billion. From memory, according to another source, it would be more like $20+ billion.
Since Yahoo assets are mainly staff and Web pages, there’s not much to liquidate like a hard essets and if you drive away users (Flickr comes to mind) and employees (*NIXers and BSDers), then you’re left overpaying and losing value in the investment.
Microsoft needs Yahoo despite the fact that it makes no financial sense. It’s a case of hurting Google more than a case of lifting Microsoft.
“They [Microsoft] have the deepest of pockets, unlimited ambition, and they are willing to lose money for years and years just to make sure that you don’t make any money, either.”
–Robert X Cringely
http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2007/07/cringely-the-un.html (good read)