A proposed settlement of private antitrust suits against Microsoft Corp caused a US federal judge some concern on Tuesday when an economist testified he had greatly underestimated the possible consumer overcharges that could be recovered from the company.
Microsoft and most of the class action attorneys in the case are in favor of a deal that would require the company to spend more than US$1 billion to put software and computers into some of the poorest US schools.
But some lawyers in the case say the deal is a fraction of what Microsoft owes for abusing its monopoly over personal computer operating systems and overcharging millions of people for software.
Keith Leffler, an economics professor at the University of Washington testifying on behalf of plaintiffs lawyers wishing to settle, said that the US$2.1 billion amount he had mentioned previously should have been US$5.15 billion.
US District Judge Frederick Motz called the earlier estimate a "dramatically incorrect figure" that raised doubts about the settlement deal.
"It seems to me you've got to go back to square one to get back to square five," Motz said.
But Motz then appeared to accept the explanation of attorneys in favor of settlement who said the incorrect figure had not been used during settlement negotiations.
The preliminary hearing on the settlement will continue on Dec. 10 when Microsoft is due to make its presentation in favor of the settlement.
Outside the court, Microsoft deputy general counsel Tom Burt said the incorrect damages figure was "never discussed at all during negotiations."
Burt said the class-action attorneys instead cited much larger figures because "plaintiffs always write a huge number on the blackboard."
Under terms of the settlement announced last week, Microsoft would assist more than 12,500 schools serving nearly 7 million children.
Critics say the deal would just entrench the monopoly of Microsoft's Windows operating system and make further inroads into the school market once dominated by rival Apple Computer Inc.
An attorney for Apple opposed the settlement, telling Motz the school market was an important one.
But one of the lead settlement attorneys, Stanley Chesley, denied allegations that the settlement was a "marketing scheme" for Microsoft.
Chesley told Judge Motz the deal would help close the so-called "digital divide" which he said "dooms millions of American youths to low-paid insecure jobs at the margin of our economy."
In contrast to this optimistic scenario, an economist working for attorneys in California who have spurned the deal, said the settlement would be unworkable and force additional costs on schools for running and maintaining the computers.
Jeffrey Mackie-Mason, an economics professor from the University of Michigan, said the deal was less valuable than the settling attorneys contended and more money could be recovered from Microsoft.
He also criticized settlement negotiations for taking place in the absence of accurate figures.
"Why are they trying to settle a case without figuring out what it's worth?" he asked.
Microsoft agreed earlier this month to settle its separate three-year-old antitrust case with the Justice Department and nine of the 18 states that had backed the suit.
On Tuesday, Connecticut said it had definitely decided against signing that settlement which aims to give computer makers freedom to feature other software and requires Microsoft to share parts of the inner workings of Windows with other software makers.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the settlement in its current form, that still must be approved by a judge, had too many gaps and ambiguities.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS