Microsoft Ruling Announced

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson gave his second ruling today in the US vs Microsoft anti-trust case. Stating that Microsoft Corp. violated the Sherman Anti-trust Act, Jackson said the software giant had "... engaged in a concerted series of actions designed to protect [windows] ... from a variety of middle-ware threats including Netscape’s Web browser and Sun Microsystem’s implementation of Java"

The Judge’s ruling signals that the final stage of the trial has begun. In this 'remedy' phase, the government will take actions against Microsoft in an attempt to impede the company’s ability to mis-use its monopoly in the operating system market. These actions may lead to the breakup of Microsoft, though the government said that a breakup alone would not suffice in stopping Microsoft from abusing its power.

After the market close today, Microsoft was down 15 points. Though the ruling was timed at 5 pm EST as to not affect the market, the NASDAQ composite was down roughly 321 points.