MSBC NewsSource is currently being produced in a shorter format to give our writers and editors a well-deserved break. To make up for fewer reports, we are including an above-average number of links to reports on other sites that will make up the difference. Standard NewsSource production will resume on January 10, 2000.

Fresh from their victories over the tobacco industry, trial lawyers from across the United States are seeing blood in the water around Microsoft. During Thanksgiving week at least seven separate class-action lawsuits were filed, all accusing Microsoft of using its monopoly to keep Windows prices high. The private lawsuits, one filed in Alabama, Florida, New York and two each from California and Ohio, are seeking penalties somewhere in excess of $45 billion. Unfortunately, most class action suits do more to enrich the attorneys behind them than they do for the classes those attorneys represent.
Despite Judge Jackson ruling Microsoft a monopoly [see NewsSource, Nov. 08], the class-action suits are not expected to be won easily. The government case against Microsoft that Jackson made his decision about never touched on price fixing, a key focus of each legal action. Additionally, Jackson determined Microsoft use illegal methods to "maintain" a monopoly, but he never said the monopoly was obtained that way, making the class-action cases even harder to win. The filing of those suits puts more pressure on Microsoft to settle with the government, since a settlement would prevent any evidence uncovered in the antitrust case from being used elsewhere.

According to reports, Microsoft is in talks with MediaOne about buying that cable operator's 60 percent stake in Titus Communications, Japan's second-largest cable operator. MediaOne is divesting most of its overseas assets in preparation for a merger with AT&T, and already sold its 20% stake in Britain's Telewest to Microsoft earlier this year [see NewsSource, May 17]. Microsoft has recently started a collection of international telecom investments, specifically AT&T, Rogers, Deutsche Telekom, Cable & Wireless, NorthPoint Communications and Portugal Telecom, among many others.
On November 24, Microsoft released a second beta of Millennium, the next version of Windows 9X. The 95/98 upgrade will reportedly be released late next year, likely as Windows 2000 Consumer or Windows 2001. Development of a consumer version based on Windows 2000's NT internals was dropped earlier this year because of software compatibility problems. [see NewsSource, July 26]

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