Ballmer tells workers that Microsoft is keen to settle

By Rebecca Sykes
IDG News Service, 03/30/00

Microsoft President and CEO Steve Ballmer Monday sent an internal message to Microsoft employees. The message maintains that the company has made "substantial proposals" to settle the federal antitrust case against it. The e-mail today appeared on the Wall Street Journal's Web site.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson is poised to issue his conclusions of law if the parties involved - Microsoft, the U.S. Department of Justice and 19 U.S. states - do not work out a settlement, with the help of Richard Posner, chief judge of the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago, the mediator appointed by Jackson. Jackson has prohibited the parties from outside discussion of the settlement talks, but Ballmer sent the internal memo, which lacks specifics, to counter news stories about the settlement talks which have appeared, many of which have been "largely inaccurate," according to the text of Ballmer's e-mail.

Ballmer said that Microsoft's settlement offers exceed the remedy likely to be delivered by the courts. "We believe we've put more on the table than the judicial process would ultimately provide, even if we lost the case," Ballmer's e-mail states.

Microsoft remains "very sure of our legal position" and is "prepared to take it all the way on appeal," but it remains unclear whether a settlement can be achieved, according to Ballmer's e-mail.

In November of last year, Jackson ruled in his findings of fact that Microsoft is a monopoly and has used its operating system dominance to squelch competition in the browser market. The judge's findings of fact went a long way toward supporting the U.S. government's case that Microsoft has abused its monopoly position in the desktop operating systems market. However, Jackson's findings at that time didn't rule on whether the software vendor had violated antitrust law, another one of the government's contentions. Once the judge's conclusions of law are issued, the stage will then be set to consider remedies for the case, which could potentially involve a breakup of the software giant - a move Microsoft vehemently opposes.

Microsoft can be reached at 425-882-8080 or at www.microsoft.com/.