Editor’s note: we are substituting a fuller story from
internetnews.com. We originally linked to cursory AP/Yahoo
story.
As expected, a federal appeals court ruled that breaking up the
software giant was not an acceptable remedy to antitrust charges.
In addition, the court found that U.S. District Judge Thomas
Penfield Jackson improperly conducted himself in the case.
“In a major victory for Microsoft Corp., the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Thursday overturned U.S.
District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson’s ruling that the company be
broken-up as a remedy to its anti-trust violations. The ruling
affected only the remedy Jackson laid out, not his finding that the
company had engaged in anti-competitive practices. ““In a unanimous 7-0 decision, the court said Jackson’s conduct
had been improper.”“‘We vacate the judgment on remedies, because the trial judge
engaged in impermissible ex parte contacts by holding secret
interviews with members of the media and made numerous offensive
comments about Microsoft officials in public statements outside of
the courtroom, giving rise to an appearance of partiality,’ the
court said….”“The court sent the case back to a lower court for a new remedy
hearing, but stipulated the case be heard by a judge other than
Jackson.”
You can also find a full copy of the decision (in PDF format)
here.