Judge rejects Microsoft settlement offer

Microsoft will not be allowed to settle private anti-trust lawsuits via a proposed $1 billion donation of computer equipment and software to resource poor schools, US Judge J. Frederick Motz recently ruled.

Coming to a conclusion that was

Microsoft will not be allowed to settle private anti-trust lawsuits via a proposed $1 billion donation of computer equipment and software to resource poor schools, US Judge J. Frederick Motz recently ruled.

Coming to a conclusion that was obvious to most involved in and around the IT industry, the proposed settlement was itself an anti-trust violation, allowing Microsoft to decide the balance between PC hardware and PC software. What this would likely have meant was a donation of around $100 million in hardware to US schools with the remaining $900 million consisting of Microsoft software products.

Setting aside for a moment the fact that Microsoft could simply have increased its dollar valuations on its software – to say $100 million per boxed copy of Office, as an exaggerated example - in order to fill its quota, the move would have guaranteed Microsoft's place as the major OS and Office software vendor for the next twenty years. The company would have been solid in the knowledge that every school kid in the US was growing up using official Microsoft software – a huge future user base who will want to use and buy the software they grew up using. Essentially, the proposal was money in the bank and would have been a huge boon to Microsoft in its war to gain 100% market share.