Sun lauds Microsoft ruling, urges further action

Peter Henderson

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft Corp. rival Sun Microsystems Inc., one of the

software maker's sharpest critics, lauded a federal appeals court on Thursday

for ruling Microsoft had abused its monopoly power and urged the courts to curb

its advance in Internet-related software.

Palo Alto, California-based Sun said the appeals court's decision had

vindicated the view that Microsoft was "a monopolist and has abused its

monopoly power in very significant ways." "We hope that the Court will

act decisively to ensure that Microsoft's illegal activity - and the harm that

it has done to the industry and to consumers - is brought to an end forcefully

and permanently," Sun said in a statement.

Sun makes network computers and competes with Microsoft for developing

technologies to extend the Web to wireless applications, and chief executive

Scott McNealy has been a dogged and public critic of the software giant.

But McNealy has also said the proposed solution that an appeals court

overturned - breaking Microsoft into two companies, one that sold the Windows

operating system and one that sold applications - would have created two

monsters from one, or "Baby Bills," a reference to Microsoft Chairman

Bill Gates.

In April 2000, Sun had lobbied for the more radical solution of breaking up

Microsoft's operating system business into three competitors and hiving off the

Internet-oriented and business applications side as well.

The appeals court on Thursday overturned the order to split Microsoft but

left intact a finding that the software titan illegally used its monopoly in the

Windows operating system.

McNealy has accused Microsoft of making software that was incompatible with

the offerings of rivals, thus discouraging competition and amounting to a kind

of "planned economy."

Sun's Java software platform and Microsoft's Hailstorm initiative have

similar goals of broadening the Internet. The two briefly cooperated on Java

before parting ways after Sun accused Microsoft of adding features exclusive to

Windows.

Microsoft says it willingly works with other developers, and on Thursday the

No. 1 software company claimed victory in the court's decision to overturn the

proposed breakup. "There's nothing in today's ruling that changes our plan

for our future products," Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told a news

conference.

Sun continued to lobby for action that would keep Microsoft from extending

its lock on desktop software to the Internet.

"Sun supports measures that will increase competition in the computer

industry and protect Internet technologies from becoming the proprietary

preserve of any one company - up to and including structural remedies, which the

Appellate Court has not ruled out," Sun said in its statement.

McNealy has said splitting Microsoft into an operating systems company and an

applications company would have just made two monopolies.

As he put it in 1999, it would be "like one of those horror movies where

you cut the monster in half, and now you have two monsters."

Ashcroft calls MS ruling, a victory



US Attorney General John Ashcroft on Thursday hailed as a victory an appeals

court ruling that left intact a finding Microsoft Corp. illegally maintained a

monopoly in personal computer operating systems.

"I am pleased to say that the court unanimously found that Microsoft

engaged in unlawful conduct to maintain its dominant position in computer

operating systems," Ashcroft told a news conference. "This is a

significant victory."

"Today's decision represents a very significant victory for the

antitrust division on the core claim ... that Microsoft engaged in

anti-competitive conduct to preserve its monopoly position in computer operating

systems," said Charles James, the Justice Department's top antitrust

enforcer.

The appeals court also ordered that a new lower court judge look at whether

Microsoft illegally tied its Internet browser to Windows to maintain that

monopoly, but overturned a ruling that it had tried to monopolize the market for

browsers.

Iowa’s AG joins the cheering squad



Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said on Thursday he was "elated" with
a US appeals court's affirmation that software giant Microsoft's business

conduct amounted to illegal maintenance of its Windows monopoly.

"We're elated," Miller told Reuters in an interview. "Our

initial reaction to the unanimous decision on maintenance monopoly is that it's

an enormous victory. We're very pleased."

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.