Gates challenges antitrust ruling against Microsoft

Gates challenges antitrust ruling against Microsoft

WASHINGTON (AFP): Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday he believes the software giant will prevail in the appeal of its antitrust case because of "common sense."

The software giant is challenging Monday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who found that Microsoft "trammeled the competitive process" by using its monopoly position in PC operating software to gain an unfair advantage in the Web browser market.

Gates, speaking on NBC's Today Show, reiterated his confidence in the firm's ability to win on appeal and avert court-ordered remedies that could include a breakup.

"I think you can almost turn to common sense and say: When a consumer looks at what's happened with PCs and the Internet ... I think they can understand that the marketplace is working for them the way that it ought to work," Gates said.

"The fact that PC industry is out there based on what Windows has made possible has been a huge benefit to everybody in the technology sector."

Gates also said the evolution of the Internet and the software market had made the government's case less relevant than when the case was filed two years ago.

"When this case was filed two years ago, people might have thought that providing Internet support in Windows was an unusual thing," he said. "But I think as those two years have gone on, as people have seen how competitive this market is and the importance of the Internet, that decision is more clear than ever."

Anticipating the judge's decision, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell by 349 points, its largest single-day drop ever. Microsoft stock lost nearly 15 percent.

While the ruling is being appealed, the case moves to the remedy phase, in which the judge will weigh proposals to correct the abuses he has detected in Microsoft's conduct.

Joel Klein, head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, told a news conference Monday that any remedy imposed by Jackson would have to have "an enduring impact on Microsoft's conduct."

"I believe it is appropriate that we have a remedy that ensures that we not have a continued pattern of antitrust violations" by Microsoft, Klein said.

"The department is always prepared to settle," he added, "so long as the remedy will deal with the legal violations fully established by the court. On those terms, we are glad to engage in settlement talks."