IHT - NY Times: "Five leading technology companies are supporting European Union regulators in their legal battle with Microsoft, a lawyer for the group said Wednesday. International Business Machines, Oracle, Red Hat, RealNetworks and Nokia have applied to intervene against Microsoft in its court appeal of an EU antitrust ruling last year, the lawyer, Thomas Vinje, said.
The intervention against Microsoft of these major technology companies - with the exception of RealNetworks, which has sued Microsoft separately - is noteworthy because they have been reluctant to take such a public stand.
Red Hat is a major distributor of the open-source Linux operating system, which IBM also widely promotes. The Oracle chief executive, Lawrence Ellison, is a longtime nemesis of Microsoft, and Nokia faces a growing threat from the company in mobile software.
Microsoft spokesmen did not immediately return calls for comment Wednesday. The company has appealed to an EU court against the March 2004 ruling in which the commission fined the company €497, or $640 million, and obliged it to share technology with competitors that make computer server software so their products can better communicate with Windows-powered computers.
The regulators also ordered Microsoft to produce a version of Windows minus its multimedia player software to provide a more level playing field for competitors like RealNetworks."
Thursday, April 07, 2005
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