NEW YORK – Microsoft, in its ongoing antitrust battle against the Justice Department, remains unwilling to compromise on its ability to innovate products, president Steve Ballmer said in an op-ed piece in Tuesday's edition of The Wall Street Journal.
"We remain committed to resolving this dispute in a fair and responsible way," Ballmer wrote. "But we cannot compromise on the government's demands that Microsoft essentially stop listening to the marketplace and cease innovating its products."
Also:
Follow Microsoft stock's wild ride
Judge Jackson's Findings of Fact
Judge: 'Gates Was Main Culprit'
Who Thinks What About That
In Praise or Contempt of MS
US v. Microsoft: Timeline
Ongoing US v. Microsoft coverage
On Friday, US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issued his finding that Microsoft wielded monopoly power, writing that the company used "its prodigious market power and immense profits to harm any firm that insists on pursuing initiatives that could intensify competition against one of Microsoft's core products," and accused Microsoft of "stifling innovation."
The ruling sets the stage for a later ruling on whether Microsoft's actions broke the law and whether any legal remedies will be imposed. Microsoft is widely expected to battle on in the courts for years to come.
Ballmer said that losing the lawsuit would force Microsoft to ignore "the most important recent development in computing – the Internet" by shipping its version of the Windows operating system without its Internet Explorer browser.
The inclusion of Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the Windows package is one of the key strategies that drew the attention of the Justice Department, which said the strategy harmed rivals such as Netscape, an assertion with which the court agreed.
Netscape was eventually acquired by Internet service provider America Online in March 1999.
Ballmer cited several recent market developments that he said showed competition and innovation hadn't been discouraged by Microsoft, including the Linux operating system, a rival to Microsoft Windows designed for larger computer networks; the growth of America Online; and the increase in venture capital spending on Internet businesses.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.
