Microsoft Corp and Borland International Inc have settled their differences over Microsoft’s alleged unfair competition practices, quietly burying the lawsuit Borland filed in the California Superior Court four months ago (CI No 3,156). In a prepared statement released after the markets closed Friday, the two companies state that the suit is settled, with the additional comment: We believe this settlement is in the best interest of both our companies. This settlement resolves any legal questions surrounding the lawsuit and allows both companies to move forward. But no details of the actual settlement – presumably a back down in some way by Microsoft – are forthcoming, and the parties have specifically stated they will make no comments on the terms of the settlement beyond the above. The suit charged Microsoft with recruiting and hiring Borland employees for the specific purpose of damaging troubled application development environment supplier Borland’s ability to compete with Microsoft; between 1994 and May of this year some 34 prominent Borland software architects, engineers and marketing managers defected from the Scotts Valleyer to Redmond. Borland CEO Dwight Yocam told his troops at an internal company meet at the time of the suit that Microsoft had been paying seven figure signing on bonuses, extended extremely favorable terms and conditions, and even sent limos to pick Borland target executives up for lunch at the campus so they could be tempted away. Among Borlanders who took the bait were then VP research Paul Gross, and the architect of Borland’s flagship development tool Delphi, Anders Hejlsberg.
