The Justice Department late Tuesday said that it would be unable to complete its investigation of Microsoft Corp’s plans to bundle Microsoft Network and Internet access software with Windows95 for a possible anti-trust challenge by the launch date, August 24, and that any action it might decide to take would have to come later. Software […]
The Justice Department late Tuesday said that it would be unable to complete its investigation of Microsoft Corp’s plans to bundle Microsoft Network and Internet access software with Windows95 for a possible anti-trust challenge by the launch date, August 24, and that any action it might decide to take would have to come later. Software companies with products ready to go as soon as Windows95 ships heaved a sigh of relief, but the switch potentially sets up an even more messy situation whereby Microsoft could be forced to remove the access software by court order some time later in the year, creating a sudden hiatus in shipments and raising questions about what should be done about the copies that were already out. One answer to that problem would be for Microsoft to be ordered to alter the log-in procedure to the network so the bundled access software would no longer work. Gary Reback, the Palo Alto attorney who has been working against Microsoft, noted that antitrust officials took the unusual step of calling him and some of his clients to brief them about the development. They said they wanted to make it clear that they weren’t waving the white flag, he told the San Jose Mercury News. They also told us that if we wanted to go and tell the press that they weren’t waving the white flag, that would be fine, too. Microsoft plans temporarily to suspend membership acceptance once it has 500,000 subscribers to the network to ensure the thing does not grow faster than its people can manage. It says that it wants to assess customer satisfaction and network quality before expanding the service to a larger audience, but it still hopes that it may reach 1m subscribers within the first 12 months of operations.
