Software giant Microsoft said on Monday it settled an antitrust suit brought against it by Caldera, ending a three-year legal battle.
Although the terms of the settlement were confidential, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said it would take a one-time charge against earnings of 3 cents a share in its quarter ending 31 March.
Caldera (CLDF), based in Salt Lake City, Utah, filed the suit in July 1996 seeking more than US$1 billion in damages.
The small software company charged Microsoft (MSFT) illegally tried to maintain its monopoly in operating systems, the basic software needed to run personal computers.
"We are pleased to put this issue behind us," Tom Burt, Microsoft's general counsel for litigation, said in a statement.
"Rather than litigating, we prefer to focus on building great software for our customers in this dynamic and competitive industry," Burt said.
The case had been scheduled to go to trial on 17 January after a federal judge denied in November an effort by Microsoft to narrow Caldera's complaint.
Caldera said it was pleased with the result and would push the Linux operating system, an emerging rival to Microsoft's Windows platform.
Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited.