Computerworld: Microsoft won’t be split up, Gates says

“MIAMI — One possible outcome of the U.S. government’s
antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. could be an order to split
up the software vendor into smaller companies, observers have noted
recently. But don’t tell that to Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill
Gates.”

“That kind of speculation is really inappropriate because the
government has never stated any interest in anything of that kind,”
Gates said during a press conference today at the company’s Latin
America Enterprise Solutions Conference ’99 here.”

“”You can speculate about what might happen, but not about any
type of breakup. It’s not on the radar screen. It’s not something
that anybody is suggesting,” Gates added.”

“Later, during a keynote address at the event here, Gates also
downplayed the recent surge in popularity of the open-source Linux
operating system, which some observers consider a potential threat
to Microsoft’s Windows NT platform. Gates said that there are
different versions of Linux, a situation that he said yields
compatibility problems. He also said that Linux’s development has
lacked a central organizing entity, which has prevented the
operating system from being as reliable as Windows.”

Complete
Story