WinInsider

In response to the U.S. Court of Appeals decision today, Microsoft Corp. issued the following initial response. "Microsoft is pleased that the U.S. Court of Appeals has overturned most of the lower court's findings against the company, drastically narrowing the case and removing the breakup cloud from the company." "The central issue in this case is the fundamental principle that every company must have the ability to innovate and improve its products on behalf of its customers. On this point, we are very pleased that this ruling reverses the District Court's previous ruling and provides a positive framework for Microsoft if these issues have to be retried. Today's ruling creates a better framework for allowing companies to improve products on behalf of consumers by adding new and innovative features." "While there are some aspects of this ruling on which we didn't prevail, we continue to believe that we face significant competition every day and we must continually improve our products in order to succeed." "We recognize that as a successful company, we have an important responsibility under the law and to the broader industry. We take that responsibility very seriously, and we will continue to work hard to provide great opportunity for our industry partners and consumers. We also understand that the best outcome for our customers, shareholders, partners and the entire industry is a quick resolution to this case. The case was substantially narrowed today, and we will continue to work toward resolving the remaining issues expeditiously."

In a victory for Microsoft, a federal appeals court has removed the trial judge from the historic antitrust case and vacated his order calling for the breakup of the software titan. In a 125-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the trial judge who issued the breakup order, Thomas Penfield Jackson, "seriously tainted the proceedings" and removed him from the case. In Thursday's decision, the federal appeals court unanimously vacated that order and sent parts of the case back to a lower court. In addition, the court determined that the case should be heard by a new judge. "We are...constrained to vacate the final judgment on remedies, remand the case for reconsideration of the remedial order, and require that the case be assigned to a different trial judge on remand," the appeals court wrote. In explaining the reasons behind its ruling, the appellate court said: "First, the district court failed to hold an evidentiary hearing despite the presence of remedies-specific factual disputes. Second, the court did not provide adequate reasons for its decreed remedies."

Microsoft investors cheered Thursday after a long-awaited federal appeals court ruling that reversed a judge's decision to split the software giant into two pieces. Shares in Microsoft climbed to nearly $74 in late trading, which was resumed around 11:50 a.m. PDT after the Nasdaq halted it for about three hours pending the release of the court decision. The shares had stood at $72 before trading was halted. Brendan Barnicle, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, said he would not be surprised if the stock climbs above $75 a share before market close

AOL Time Warner Inc., Red Hat Inc. and VA Linux Systems Inc. all dropped after the seven-judge appeals panel without dissent threw out a finding by District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson that Microsoft had tried to monopolize the market for Internet browsers. "America Online is one of their biggest competitors and will be one of the most impacted stocks'' by this decision, said Max Sasso, portfolio manager and analyst at City National Investments, a unit of City National Bank in Beverly Hills which oversees $3.8 billion, and includes Microsoft as one of its 'bigger' holdings

Handing Microsoft a major victory in its antitrust case, a federal appeals court has vacated a lower court's ruling calling for the breakup of the software titan. The decision comes almost exactly a year after a federal judge ruled that Microsoft violated antitrust laws by exploiting its monopoly in the market for operating systems to capture the market for Web browsers. As a remedy, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson had said the company should be split into two pieces: One would focus on operating systems, and the other would develop applications and other products. In Thursday's unanimous decision, a federal appeals court vacated that order and sent the decision back to the lower court. In addition, the court determined that the case should be heard by a new judge rather than by Jackson. News of the ruling sent Microsoft shares up $3.82 to $74.69 in early trading.

The most exciting Windows product launch ever is on the way! Where do you think it should happen? Atlanta? Topeka? Your hometown? Windows XP is the best version of Windows ever, with a clean and simple desktop, rock-solid reliability, and easy-to-use features for advanced laptop support, instant communications, digital music and photos, and more. Wherever the Windows XP launch takes place, you can bet it's going to be the biggest and most spectacular ever. Now you tell us where you think it should happen.

Rick Belluzzo, president and chief operating officer of Microsoft Corp., addressed more than 600 industry leaders at Partner Marketing Day in Las Vegas, sharing Microsoft's plans for the marketing frenzy behind Microsoft Windows XP and launching an unprecedented campaign for the revolutionary new operating system, including a total of $500 million from Microsoft and Intel Corp. alone to promote Windows XP and Pentium® 4 PCs. "Never before have we seen such industrywide support and such strong enthusiasm or investment in the launch of a Microsoft product," Belluzzo said. "With release candidate 1 of Windows XP coming in the next 10 days, we are working together with our top software, hardware, channel and retailing partners to communicate the amazing set of experiences delivered with Windows XP."

Microsoft said Tuesday that it, together with Intel, PC makers and retailers, will spend $1 billion promoting Windows XP, the software giant's upcoming operating system. Microsoft and Intel alone will spend $500 million to market Windows XP, which is slated for an Oct. 25 launch, with PC makers and retailers spending another $500 million. In May, Jim Allchin, Microsoft group vice president, said the company would spend "hundreds of millions of dollars" promoting Windows XP.

Windows XP Build 2486 has been released to testers. According to Neowin, this build is different from the 2486 leaked late last week. Here's small excerpt from the release notes. 1) Sound schemes cannot be changed in this build - this should be fixed in the next build we release. 2) Windows XP Home Edition now support multiple monitors, including dualview. (To the extent this has been supported in Professional) Interim Build 2486 is available for download. We are pleased to announce availability of Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP interim build 2486 for electronic download. This is an interim build following Beta 2. More information will certainly follow.

Microsoft has finally shipped an interim build of Windows XP that includes the first version of Windows Messenger, so it's time to take a closer look at this XP-only .NET component. Windows Messenger enhances the public and freely available MSN Messenger product, which is essentially an Instant Messaging (IM) tool, in a variety of ways.