Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) was in a whirl of issues years ago when the U.S. Department of Justice forced its oversight on the software maker for "bundling" its Internet Explorer into the Windows operating system. Although I've agreed with much of the litigation against the software maker in this vein, I've never understood what makes it such a crime to bundle your own products together. Me? I installed Mozilla Firefox eons ago and have never looked back. Internet Explorer collects dust somewhere in my PC since it is never used.
Anyway, with that oversight set to expire later this year, seven states want the U.S. government to continue its monitoring of Microsoft for at least three more years for fear of the software company bundling something else into the brains of a certain segment of its software consumers.
The extension of the governmental monitoring most likely stems from the recent release of the Windows Vista operating system, with the states in question stating that the "principal constraint on Microsoft's ability to abuse its market power will be gone" if the consent decree is allowed to expire this November without anything to follow it.
However, with Microsoft having satisfied the conditions of the consent decree so far, the oversight may not need a continuation after all, regardless of the states' desires.
[Disclosure: I own MSFT shares as of 9-13-07]
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