News
Microsoft Issues One More Response To Breakup Plan
In Offer of Proof, Microsoft offers seven more witnesses who would testify in Microsoft's behalf that a breakup would be "extreme and unjustified."
From
ENT Magazine -- Anticipating that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson will hand down a ruling soon, Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday issued one last response to the proposed breakup of the company.
Microsoft says that this most recent document supplements a similar one filed on May 24, which provided 16 witnesses the company would have called if the court had allowed them to testify.
This recent document offered seven more witnesses that would testify, including Michael Capellas, president and CEO of Compaq Computer Corp.; Dr. Steven Davis, professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business; and Richard Schmalensee, professor of economics and management and dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management.
According to the Offer of Proof, Capellas would testify that breaking up Microsoft will slow its release of new products, thereby inhibiting innovation. Further, the fact that the operating system and applications have been developed by a single company makes the software more reliable, better performing, and less expensive. Cappellas' testimony would assert that breaking Microsoft up would complicate things for the consumer.
A decision from Judge Jackson is anticipated later today.
To read the full report from Web Editor Isaac Slepner, go to http://www.entmag.com/breaknews.asp?ID=2738.