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Links: Microsoft Settles Netscape Suit . . . By Agreeing to License IE
Posted by James Grimmelmann on Friday, May 30 @ 12:06:36 EDT Antitrust
Netscape (in the form of AOL Time Warner) is dropping its antitrust suit against Microsoft in exchange for $750 million. By way of comparison, AOL's debt load is over $26 billion, while Microsoft has over $46 billion in cash on hand.

The other striking term of the deal was that AOL will get a seven-year royalty-free license to use IE, an arrangement that doesn't bode well for Netscape's political prospects within the AOL/TW world. Microsoft will also give AOL a license to use Windows Media Player and help to distribute AOL CDs.

It's . . . as . . . though . . . they've forgtten that MSN and AOL are supposed to be competitors.

 
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Microsoft Settles Netscape Suit . . . by spreading WMP (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Tuesday, June 03 @ 11:36:46 EDT
The main part of the deal seems to be to provide a vector to spread WMP. Given the proprietary nature of WMP, the MS-only DRM in WMP, and (in the traditional media) the recent consolidation, this could have grave repercussions for freedom of information in the U.S. at worst. At best, it opens up another anti-trust can of worms, assuming they are still around and not bankrupt. Lots of agencies and businesses are moving to Open Source or to non-Microsoft systems. Or it could just be smoke to hide problems [www.pcworld.com] and losses.


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