Microsoft has been fighting with EU antitrust authorities for years. It appears that the company has sued for peace. The company has offered to allow users to choose which browser they prefer in new computers, rather than defaulting to the pre-installed Explorer. According to a company spokesperson:
“This would address an extremely wide swath of issues for us and the rest of the industry that have been there for the past decade,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said of the settlement proposal. Asked if it would end Microsoft’s tortuous and protracted fight with Brussels, he said: “You can never say never but if you look at the issues on the table, this would go very far.”
According to a Financial Times story, even Microsoft’s competitors consider the proposal adequate to settle many outstanding anti-trust issues. The company the launched complaint regarding browers, Opera, seemed satisfied.
Hakon Wium Lie, chief technology officer of Opera, a Norwegian browser-maker whose complaint sparked the latest dispute in Brussels, said the Microsoft proposal appeared to go a long way to mitigating the impact of Windows’ dominance and would lead to a far more open market for internet browsers in Europe.
Maybe they are clearing the decks in Europe in order to prepare for a more aggressive anti-trust regulator in the U.S.
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