Microsoft Settles IBM Antitrust Claims

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Microsoft and IBM have settled outstanding legal claims stemming from the U.S. government's antitrust case against Microsoft in the mid-1990s.

The agreement, announced Friday, will result in a $775 million payment to IBM and a $75 million credit toward Microsoft software. In the course of the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust suit against the software giant, the government claimed that IBM suffered from Microsoft's discriminatory pricing and overcharging practices, according to a Microsoft statement released Friday.

The settlement resolves those antitrust claims, as well as others related to IBM's OS/2 operating system and SmartSuite desktop application suite. "IBM is pleased that we have amicably resolved these longstanding issues," Ed Lineen, senior vice president and general counsel for IBM, said in the statement.
The pact does not cover claims for alleged harm to IBM's server hardware or server software business.

News source: C|Net News.com

I touched on the subject with Jed Rose, a featured community leader at Microsoft, who agreed to comment or find someone to comment on this subject. I asked him what he felt about Macintosh becoming mainstream for x86 and his initial response was that theres already quite a bit of discussion going on behind the scenes in Mac section of Microsoft. I hope to have official comment on Microsoft's perception of this soon.

Whatever the outcome, one thing is sure. Apple are working on OS X codenamed Leopard and it's scheduled to release around the same time as Longhorn. We may find ourselves looking at a real choice for our hardware around that time, this is of course assuming that it will be a boxed version that x86 users can buy off the shelf, without needing to meet the strict hardware requirements that Apple have always had in the past.

2006 just became a lot more interesting.

(4 replies) #1 bsharp on 01 Jul 2005 - 15:31

$775 million payment? I dont think IBM would have sold $2million worth of OS/2 and SmartSuite in Thirty years! But it's Microsoft so it aint no big deal. "$775 million" that is some sick cash.

#1.1 osu9400 on 01 Jul 2005 - 16:06

The argument was that MS anti-comp practices prevented IBM from selling that much software. The potential was there at one point. OS/2 was really ahead of its time. Had the whole IBM/MS partnership worked out, just think how much better Windows would be today. Actually, Windows is finally a decent OS, but we would not had to suffer through Windows 3.1, 95, 98, ME to get here.

The problems with OS/2 was:
- Boring IBM marketing
- Marketing only to business
- Steep hardware requirments. At the time, Windows 3.0 could run on 2-4 MB of RAM, but OS/2 2.1 needed around 12 MB. RAM was expensive back then.

By the time IBM realized that they had a potentially great platform, it was too late. MS had won the desktop OS war. IBM tried a consumer push with OS/2 3.0 a.k.a Warp. Too late. Anyone remember the "OS/2 Warp Fiesta Bowl?"

I recently had a chance to play with Lotus SmartSuite. I was shocked at how nice it actually was. All the apps were intuitive especially Freelance Graphics. 1-2-3 was nice also. The biggest surprise was the word processor - Word Pro. It was big, but it seemed more like a desktop publisher than a text editor.

Competition would have been a great thing in the productivity suite market but it never happened. I'm not blaming MS 100% because the IBM marketing machine didn't do their part either.

#1.2 scsgoal31 on 01 Jul 2005 - 16:19

Ha...I was at the OS/2 Fiesta Bowl..IBM sent my dad and his family there as part of their "dedication to service" award.

I have this sweet jacket that folds up into a football with the OS/2 Fiesta logo on it..haha.

Anyway. We used OS/2 warp 4.0, and I really liked it..but it quickly became outdated. Even IBM wasn't using it on their employees computers..so that wasn't gonna last long. But it was fun while it did.

#1.3 bsharp on 01 Jul 2005 - 16:39

I had OS/2warp ver3 and 4 it was pretty fast. I still have them in original box with manuals. It was way Better than Windows back then for sure but it was expensive and the lack of supported software compared to a Macintosh was down right shamefull in my opinon. I hated SmartSuite from the start so I wont even go there

Do I still think it was worth that much? nope! You guys remember back then Apple was the big dog in desktops. And everyone trashed on them because of it. How things have changed. And rather fast to! Or im getting old one or the other?

Last edited by 115639 on 01 Jul 2005 - 16:46

#1.4 brianshapiro on 01 Jul 2005 - 21:23

Interface wise and design-wise and for the end user, I think Windows was always better than OS/2. The problem is whenever you heard someone talk about OS/2 they would tout technical advantages which were esoteric to most people, so most people weren't really interested. It wasn't just boring marketing. It was a boring OS with some technical advances over Windows.

#2 pickleman on 01 Jul 2005 - 18:07

QUOTE

In a response to this week's hottest topic, Intel's CEO shot back at Advanced Micro Device's accusations, stating that the company would not change any of its current business practices and would expect any court ruling to end in its favor, should it ever get there.

hmmmmm.....wonder how it feels to have the shoe on the other foot...

#3 jivemastert on 01 Jul 2005 - 18:19

OS/2 Warp... yeah I got some box with that software in my attic... my dad worked for IBM, so of course we had it. had it been marketed properly I think it would have succeeded.

#4 neostyle on 01 Jul 2005 - 20:02

sheesh they paid a lot of money during the last years for settlements . but i am sure there is some left

(1 reply) #5 Jugalator on 01 Jul 2005 - 20:46

OMG, that's quite a bit of money

Lucky for Microsoft that their money pile is big. lol

edit: Hmm, a Slashdotter said it should be about a month of revenue for Microsoft, and that they have a $40+ billion cash reserve. Anyone have any current figures of Microsoft's economy?

Last edited by 21023 on 01 Jul 2005 - 20:52

#5.1 neostyle on 01 Jul 2005 - 22:38

Hmm, a Slashdotter said it should be about a month of revenue for Microsoft, and that they have a $40+ billion cash reserve.

yeah thats true ....

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/apr05/04-28fy05Q3earnings.mspx

Last edited by 2096 on 01 Jul 2005 - 22:48

#6 TheSarge on 01 Jul 2005 - 23:43

so, that's $775-850 Million from MS to IBM, and now they can finaly bury this old lawsuit.
About freeking time. This thing has draged on for more than a decade now. I wonder how much it cost the two sides in legal fees, court costs, bribery, pay-offs, and wasted oportunity?

#7 Angel Blue01 on 03 Jul 2005 - 17:14

My Dad still uses Lotus 9.3

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