Microsoft has its year in court
ZDNet | at | by Mike
Microsoft used 2002 to turn the tide in its nearly 5-year-old antitrust battle with the Justice Department and 18 states. The Redmond, Wash.-based company started the year with its nemesis--the Justice Department--as an unlikely ally, the result of a settlement reached in November 2001. But Microsoft spent most of 2002 convincing U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that the deal was in the public interest and that stiffer remedies requested by nine nonsettling states were not necessary.
Following a string of courtroom procedural gaffes made by the states and three days of testimony by Chairman Bill Gates, Microsoft successfully weakened the states' arguments. After more than four months of deliberations, Kollar-Kotelly approved the settlement with minor modifications and imposed a revised version of the deal as her remedy in the plaintiff states' case. The ruling stunned many legal experts, who questioned whether the states could successfully appeal.