The Justice Department filed a brief today arguing against Microsoft Corp.'s request for quick resolution of its appeal of a federal judge's order seeking to temporarily stop the company from requiring computer manufacturers to bundle Internet Explorer on their Windows 95 machines.
The company, in seeking expedited consideration of its attempt to lift Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's preliminary injunction, said the court order would cause "irreparable harm" by interfering with release plans for its next-generation operating system, Windows 98. Beyond injury to itself, the company warned, such a delay could cause damage to the US economy as a whole.
The Justice Department reply urged that the speeded-up appeal process be rejected because Microsoft's warnings about economic calamity are based on mere speculation about the impact of Jackson's ruling on Windows 98.
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Sony lines up for next Net wave: Although it largely missed out on the first wave of Internet product development, Sony Corp. looks like it's getting in position for Round Two. The consumer electronics giant is said to be NextLevel Systems' first choice as a distributor for the 15 million advanced digital-TV set-top boxes that NextLevel will provide the cable industry over the next three years, The Wall Street Journal reported today.
Sony is reportedly vying with Thomson Electronics, owner of RCA, for the right to distribute the boxes. NextLevel is said to favor a deal with Sony because of the cachet of the Japanese firm's brand name.
The deal would likely involve a Sony investment of several hundred million dollars for a 5 percent to 10 percent stake in NextLevel. Sony would have its name on every NextLevel box it sold and might have the opportunity to roll its own technology, including its large stable of video games, into the boxes.
NextLevel announced last week that it would provide the 15 million set-top boxes to nine leading cable companies, including Tele-Communications Inc. and Comcast. That deal also involved large equity investments in NextLevel. The cable companies were offered 16 percent of NextLevel's stock. TCI was the largest investor, ending up with a 10 percent stake. TCI's chief executive, John Malone, is chairman of the industry consortium that set the specifications for the set-top boxes. (22.Dec.97)
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Cisco to buy LightSpeed: Cisco Systems announced today that it will acquire communications software company LightSeed International for US$160 million in stock. LightSpeed has developed voice protocol conversion and call control software that allows different phone and communications systems to work together, potentially lowering communications costs for both businesses and consumers.
Cisco, a computer networking equipment-maker, hopes the addition of LightSpeed's signaling technologies will strengthen its position in both the enterprise and service-provider markets. In the enterprise market, LightSpeed's technology allows large in-house telephone switching systems to interconnect. In the service-provider market, the technology allows carriers to transition from circuit-switched systems to voice. (22.Dec.97)
