Following complaints by Norway-based Web browser company Opera, and a coalition of technology companies, the EU will inquire as to whether Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) broke EU competition rules to help its Web browser and its Office / Outlook products.
Microsoft's a focus, again
The inquiry comes four months after Microsoft lost its Europe appeal of a case in which officials ruled that the company had illegally tied its Media Player to the Windows operating system and had failed to disclose information that would make other server software company's products operate on the Windows system, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.
At least initially investors took investigation news in stride, with Microsoft's shares falling just 23 cents to $34.16 despite a broad market sell-off Tuesday afternoon.
Larger impact on market?
London-based economist Mark Chandler told BloggingStocks Tuesday that the second case, if investigators determine that Microsoft acted unlawfully or violated EU rules, may have a larger impact on the market given the market penetration of Microsoft's Office / Outlook products.
"Basically, as it concerns Europe, Europe is an Office / Outlook world and you can't enable either Office or Outlook to run well with competitors' products. The practical reality of that is you can't use any other software to organize meetings, for example, a decided benefit for Microsoft's operating system," Chandler said. "One could argue that in the 1990s there weren't e-mail and meetings software in Europe capable of undertaking these tasks, but that isn't the case now, and these software developers want in."
Chandler could not specify the dollar/euro size of Europe's Office/Outlook market and the possible revenue implications of a negative decision for Microsoft, exclusive of potential fines, but he said the market "had to be in the tens of millions of dollars annually."
To-date, Microsoft has paid more than $1.16 billion in EU fines.
Comfort Zone Investing: The unmighty dollar
Five winners of a weak dollar
For a quick-read on the U.S. economy, check the price of gasoline
