Microsoft Owes the EU $2.5 Billion, More for Patent Abuses
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2008-02-27 15:10:09 UTC
- Modified: 2008-02-27 15:14:11 UTC
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.
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Comments
Rui Miguel Silva Seabra
2008-02-27 15:36:33
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/318&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
Roy Schestowitz
2008-02-27 16:14:51
[sarcasm /]Microsoft will try to slink away from this, as it does every time (mind the rebellious teenager analogy).
Rui Miguel Silva Seabra
2008-02-27 20:36:14
So let's see how much they end up paying :D
However, European Commission's press release does talk about 899M €.
Rui Miguel Silva Seabra
2008-02-27 20:50:28
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
2008-02-28 02:52:17
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)