News
DOJ Eyes Microsoft's Investment in Corel Corp.
Software giant hands over documents to DOJ, who wants to study the impact Microsoft's investment may have on office suite market.
According to an article in Wednesday's edition of
The Wall Street Journal, the Department of Justice once again is investigating Microsoft for antitrust violations, this time for the company's $135 million investment in Corel Corp.
In January, the DOJ served Microsoft with a subpoena requiring the company to turn over internal documents regarding the investment. Microsoft has cooperated with the investigation, says a source, as reported in ENT Magazine (see http://www.entmag.com/breaknews.asp?ID=4129).
The Wall Street Journal article states that "the Justice Department is looking into whether Microsoft's stake in Corel could reduce competition in the market for office software packages," which Microsoft dominates with 90 percent market share. Corel makes WordPerfect Office, a competitor to Microsoft Office.
The article also indicates that the DOJ is scrutinizing what impact the Microsoft investment may have had on Corel's decision to abandon further work to adapt WordPerfect Office to the Linux operating system.
Microsoft is already in the midst of appealing an antitrust loss back in June last year. That appeal goes in front of an appellate panel at the end of February.