Microsoft will appeal: Gates

SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates on Wednesday vowed to appeal a federal judge's ruling to break the software giant into two parts, saying the company had a strong case.

Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who has ruled Microsoft was an abusive monopoly, minutes earlier on Wednesday ordered the split to prevent the world's biggest software company from committing further antitrust violations.

"We will be appealing this decision, and we believe we have a very strong case on appeal. We believe this ruling is inconsistent with the past decisions by the Appeals Court, with fundamental fairness, and with the reality of the marketplace," Gates said in a statement on Microsoft's Web site.

"This is clearly the most massive attempt at government regulation of the technology industry ever," Gates said. "This plan would undermine our high-tech economy, hurt consumers, make computers harder to use, and impact thousands of other companies and employees throughout the high-tech industry."

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