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Standing between a marriage of Microsoft and Yahoo may be the technology behemoth that has continually outsmarted them: Google. In an unusually aggressive effort to prevent Microsoft from moving forward with its $44.6 billion hostile bid for Yahoo, Google emerged over the weekend with plans to play the role of spoiler. Publicly, Google came out against the deal, contending in a statement that the pairing, proposed by Microsoft on Friday in the form of a hostile offer, would pose potential threats to competition that needed to be examined by policy makers around the world, a threat Microsoft disputed. Privately, Google...

New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday that his office has subpoenaed documents and information from Intel Corp. in an antitrust probe into whether the semiconductor giant tried to coerce customers to exclude rivals from the marketplace. In a press release, Mr. Cuomo said the subpoena is seeking documents and information concerning Intel's pricing practices and possible attempts to exclude competitors, including its main rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., through Intel's dominate position in the market, "Our investigation is focused on determining whether Intel has improperly used monopoly power to exclude competitors or stifle innovation," Mr. Cuomo said...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Microsoft Corp. is fast becoming engulfed in the technical mapping of its own products, even as a judge's decision looms on whether to extend antitrust restrictions placed on the company for an additional five years. According to a status report filed by Microsoft on Monday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the number of outstanding technical issues requiring documentation jumped nearly 60% from the end of October to the end of November. Such technical documentation is demanded of Microsoft, with the aim of making its market-dominating software products more compatible with those...

A letter from the top two ranking members of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, Democrat Herb Kohl and Republican Orrin Hatch, seeks to chill Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick on antitrust grounds: Antitrust regulators need to be wary to guard against the creation of a powerful Internet conglomerate able to extend its market power in one market into adjacent markets, to the detriment of competition and consumers. This might not have seemed like much of a threat, even a year or two ago, but as the online world increasingly merges with the offline world, the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Four states concerned about Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT)'s market power are pressing a federal court to extend by five years its oversight of the software company, which began in 2002 as part of a landmark antitrust settlement. The request, filed late Thursday, represents a turnabout for New York, Maryland, Louisiana and Florida. In August, the group signed onto court papers submitted by the Justice Department that said the consent decree reached in 2002 had achieved its goal of safeguarding competition in certain software markets. In their newest filing, however, the states said that while "competitive developments in...

Computer chips are getting faster and smaller, and prices are dropping amid fierce competition. So naturally the European Commission thinks this is the ideal time to lodge another antitrust suit against another American technology titan. Last Friday, EU regulators accused Intel Corp. of offering computer makers -- brace yourself -- rebates designed to harm rival Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, in the chip market. In Brussels jargon, that's an "abuse of a dominant position" and could lead to a fine of as much as 10% of Intel's annual global turnover, or perhaps €3.5 billion... The investigations were prompted by AMD,...

BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Will Microsoft Corp. design, produce and ship a branded computer in the United States? It's already doing this in India without fanfare. Nobody has considered the possibility that the Microsoft PC in India is a market test for a bigger rollout. As of this writing the company isn't saying. Reports out of India are sketchy. Over the years, Microsoft has been accused of copying what Apple Inc. does, as far as user interface is concerned. Why not copy the idea of an entire branded computer, too? After all, with the Zune player, Microsoft has played follow-the-leader...

WASHINGTON, June 28 — Striking down an antitrust rule nearly a century old, the Supreme Court ruled today that it is no longer automatically unlawful for manufacturers and distributors to agree on setting minimum retail prices. The decision will give producers significantly more leeway, though not unlimited power, to dictate retail prices and to restrict the flexibility of discounters. Five justices said the new rule could, in some instances, lead to more competition and better service. But four dissenting justices agreed with the submission of 37 states and consumer groups that the abandonment of the old rule would lead to...

CHICAGO (Reuters) -- Microsoft has agreed to modify its new Vista operating system in response to complaints that its desktop search function puts Google Inc. and other potential competitors at a disadvantage, a source familiar with the case told Reuters Tuesday.The Justice Department and Microsoft are expected to provide details of the proposed changes in a joint report filed in federal court later Tuesday, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The source provided no details on what changes Microsoft had agreed to make.A spokesman for Microsoft had no immediate comment.Report: More flaws found in Microsoft's VistaIn a complaint...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Internet search leader Google Inc. is trying to convince federal and state authorities that Microsoft Corp.'s Vista operating system is stifling competition as the high-tech heavyweights wrestle for the allegiance of personal computer users.

Click to read article. Would not allow me to excerpt due to copyright. http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070518/BUSINESS01/705180389

AMD has the following notes on a transcript from the Intel anti trust case. Apparently Intel can't stop deleting e-mail. Funny. Attached is a court transcript from a meeting that occurred last Wednesday in Delaware between counsel for AMD/Intel and Special Master Poppiti after the hearing with Judge Farnan. After giving it a once-over, it seems to me that here’s where the most newsworthy meat is to be found from the 58 page transcript, in page order: Page 12, beginning at line 15 – Intel CEO Paul Otellini is revealed to be one of the Intel executives who is not...

Whether Intel suffers severe legal consequences for failing to save all potential evidence in Advanced Micro Devices' antitrust lawsuit against the chipmaker will depend in large part on whether Intel can convince a judge it followed best practices. [snip] "They're going to have a very hard time defending their process," Robert Brownstone, law and technology director at the law firm Fenwick & West in San Francisco, said. [snip] Intel acknowledges that ... a small number of hundreds of employees whose e-mail was deemed as potential evidence failed to move all messages to their hard drive, which means the e-mail would...

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European Union threatened Microsoft Corp. on Thursday with fines as high as $4 million a day, claiming the software company was still not offering a fair deal to rivals seeking to make their products more compatible with Windows. Microsoft said the EU Commission's demands were not reasonable. "We believe we have been fair in setting" prices for the information, said Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith."It is hard to see how the Commission can argue that even patented innovation must be made available for free," he said in a statement.The EU complained that three years after...

BRUSSELS -- The European Union unveiled an ambitious blueprint for combating global warming and boosting energy efficiency, but key elements of the plan face strong opposition from business interests and could require major battles to get them implemented. The European Commission yesterday published a long-awaited proposal for the bloc's first common energy strategy, a version of which will be discussed at a summit of the EU's 27 national leaders in March. "Europe must lead the world into a new -- or maybe one should say post-industrial -- revolution: the development of a low-carbon economy," said commission President José Manuel Barroso....

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A federal court in Chicago has allowed the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors to proceed, the department said Tuesday. The court rejected the association's argument that last-minute changes to its policies prevented judicial scrutiny, the department said. In denying the association's motion to dismiss the case, the court said that "NAR has failed ... to demonstrate that this case should be dismissed at the outset," according to the Justice Department. In September 2005 the department's antitrust division filed a lawsuit charging that NAR rules limit competition from real-estate brokers who use the...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has issued an opinion in which Judge Easterbrook declares, "[t]he GPL and open-source have nothing to fear from the antitrust laws." The case is called Wallace v. IBM., No. 06-2454. [Download a copy of the opinion.] Internet Cases covered the lower court's decision from last December here. Plaintiff Wallace filed an antitrust suit against IBM, Red Hat and Novell, arguing that those companies had conspired to eliminate competition in the operating system market by making Linux available at an "unbeatable" price (free) under the General Public License ("GPL"). The U.S. District...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has issued an opinion in which Judge Easterbrook declares, "[t]he GPL and open-source have nothing to fear from the antitrust laws." The case is called Wallace v. IBM., No. 06-2454. [Download a copy of the opinion.] Internet Cases covered the lower court's decision from last December here. Plaintiff Wallace filed an antitrust suit against IBM, Red Hat and Novell, arguing that those companies had conspired to eliminate competition in the operating system market by making Linux available at an "unbeatable" price (free) under the General Public License ("GPL"). The U.S. District...

Microsoft and the European Commission appeared to be stepping back from months of conflict over the Vista operating system, after the US software group revealed on Friday that it had made significant changes to its new flagship product ahead of Vista’s launch next month.Although the Brussels-based antitrust regulator stressed that it had not given a “green light” to Microsoft, Neelie Kroes, the European Union competition commissioner, gave an upbeat assessment.“They promised they would behave and take into account our rules and regulations. Well, I’m a happy woman,’’ she told Reuters.Microsoft’s competitors said they needed more time to assess the changes...

European Union investigators believe they have enough evidence to pursue formal antitrust charges against Intel Corp., a critical step in their five-year probe of the computer-chip maker, according to two people with knowledge of the case. Investigators for the European Commission in Brussels have prepared a written draft of charges against Intel... After that process, a report will be sent to European antitrust chief Neelie Kroes, who will make a final decision, likely before the end of the year, on whether to issue formal charges against the Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker... Intel would then get two months to issue...