So much for the buzz.
After both sides in the Microsoft antitrust case spent 48 hours in frenzied preparation for a decision, complete with teleconferences and blast email to journalists, the result was a stunning anticlimax.
Nothing happened.
4:30 p.m. EDT came and went on Friday with no news from the judge. A spokesman for the state attorneys general sent laconic email to reporters at 4:56 p.m.: "no MS finding today, as you know.... Have a good weekend!"
The reason for the non-decision? Nobody knows, or at least nobody who really knows is going to be talking. US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has been beefing up his staff while drafting the "findings of fact" -- which will be his first preliminary decision in the case, which began in May 1998.
All of the speculation revolves around one brief note from the judge: "The findings of fact in US v. Microsoft, State of New York, et al. v. Microsoft, will issue on a Friday evening at 6:30 p.m." Jackson said he would give both sides two hours notice.
The US Government Printing Office has set up a special Web site for the brief.
When there's no news, even the lack of it seems to become newsworthy.
Microsoft on Monday will become part of the Dow Jones industrial average, and an apparent courtroom loss at this stage would send the Dow skittering downwards.
"The judge may think it's prudent to avoid any stunning announcement before the Dow changes," said Jim Lucier, an analyst at Prudential Securities' Washington office.
"Perhaps the judge looked at his calendar and realized that today was the 70th anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash and perhaps he decided that the timing was insalubrious," Lucier joked.
Hold on to MS shares: Prudential this week published a report maintaining its "accumulate" rating for Microsoft stock.
"At this point, we suspect even a worst-case scenario in the findings of fact would have minimal near-term impact on the stock," write analysts Douglas Crook and Jim Lucier.
"If Microsoft is found to have monopoly market power and to have acted illegally, and this conclusion is ultimately upheld on appeal, we believe it would open the door to private lawsuits alleging antitrust offenses.... However, we don't believe those developments, if they occurred, when they occurred, would cause a material change to operating results, which we believe, mostly impacts the stock."
They say that the findings of fact -- which will indicate which way Judge Jackson is leaning -- will prompt both sides to talk settlement.
Their prediction? "Overall, despite the antitrust trial and the surrounding media circus, we believe Microsoft stock will continue to grow with earnings and command a distinct premium."
Crook and Lucier say they continue to keep their "accumulate" rating and US$115 price target. Microsoft shares closed Friday at 92 9/16.
Have a dollar, go to jail: Recently we told you about a plan to include tracking devices in US currency that will let the government tax private possession of dollar bills.
The proposal came from a proposal written by Marvin Goodfriend, a senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, who said it would reduce "hoarding" of cash.
Y2K mavens, some of whom have been stockpiling gold and greenbacks, heard about this. Guess what happened next.
Here's what y2knewswire.com said: "Y2K watchers knew this was coming: the attempt at making cash illegal.... As Y2K Newswire predicted fourteen months ago, bankers are now pumping up the 'hoarding' phrase and working to outlaw cash entirely."
Longtime doomsayer and gold-standard buff Gary North couldn't leave it alone.
"There is no limit to the ability of economists to come up with restrictions on our liberties in the name of the greater good.... Without computers, this scheme could not work. Currency still has a future. Get some," he wrote.
Sure, it makes sense to recognize the privacy-invading single-mindedness of banking regulators -- they're the same folks who brought us Know Your Customer, after all.
But with only 62 days left 'til Y2K, they'll have to move pretty quickly to accomplish anything in time.
US veterans, take yer vitamins: Y2K glitches might run amok in hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
"As of October 22, 1999, only five of [Veterans Benefits Administration]’s 58 regional offices had completed testing of their business continuity and contingency plans," said Joel Willemssen of the General Accounting Office in testimony presented during a hearing this week.
Worse yet, nobody seems to know what's going on.
An August 1999 progress report by the Veterans Health Administration said that only 43 percent of the facility systems -- alarms, building systems -- and 41 percent of phone systems were fixed.
But even that hardly-sunny report isn't accurate.
"Their individual and summary reports did contain errors.... The Y2K office has also contacted selected medical facilities and acknowledged that the reports have errors," Willemssen told the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs oversight subcommittee.
At stake are medical programs for millions of Americans. VHA estimates that in 1998 it filled about 72 million prescriptions for 3.4 million veterans.
The good news? Diesel generators are finally being tested. "Other sites found that some of their mission-critical areas were not linked to the backup generator, and have since contracted for additional work to link them," Willemssen said.
