NY AG 'Pleased' With Microsoft Oversight Extension
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly decided late Tuesday that federal oversight of Microsoft's market power, which began in 2002 after a major antitrust settlement, will extend by 18 months [Read more in Wednesday's Technology Daily PM Edition]. Ten states, led by New York and California, lobbied the court to extend its watch over the software giant until 2012.
After deadline, Jay Himes, chief of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's antitrust bureau, sent us a statement from Cuomo saying he was "pleased that the court recognized how important it is to keep the antitrust decree against Microsoft in place to protect consumers and promote fair competition."
The extension will help "ensure that Microsoft fully complies with the requirements of the consent decree and helps stimulate competition in the personal computers marketplace," Cuomo said.
John Lopatka, co-author of a recent book on the Microsoft case e-mailed with a different view. He said Kollar-Kotelly seemed "frustrated that a remedial provision that had a shaky justification from the beginning and has proven competitively unimportant has been difficult to implement."
The Pennsylvania State University law professor said Kollar-Kotelly's stance on Microsoft "is a bit schizophrenic." "The judge lauds Microsoft for working to resolve problems and simultaneously condemns it for allowing the problems to arise," he said.
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Antitrust
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