EU, Microsoft -
A ’source’ has confirmed a comment by Microsoft’s general counsel that the company was talking to the European Commission about a possible agreement that could avert a ruling that might impose penalties and a large fine on Microsoft, says a report.
Last August the Commission said it was thinking about forcing Microsoft to sell a version of Windows without Media Player, and ordering it to make more information available to its rivals in the computer server market so they could make their products compatible.
EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti and Bill Gates were both at the World Economic Forum in Davos at the weekend, but didn’t meet, say "both sides," quoted in a Reuters report here.
"Bradford Smith, senior vice-president, corporate and legal affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary of Microsoft told Reuters on Saturday: ‘We’re hopeful to work something out (with the Commission), but those discussions are not taking place in Davos,’ it goes on, but, ‘This is not the right place.’ He said he’d been in the same room as Monti, but it had been full of other people "and they were on opposite sides."
The comments came after an internal consultation paper was circulated in the Commission last week, which referred to the possibility of a large fine, without spelling out the size, says Reuters, adding, "The source said there was no indication that contacts had broken down since then." nductors Kao Hsiung manufacturing site in Taiwan and the division’s distribution center in Hong Kong."
