IBM, which was named as an injured party in the Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson’s findings of fact in the US government’s antitrust case, also gets a $75m credit note towards buying Microsoft software for its own use.
The settlement addresses discriminatory pricing practices uncovered by the US v Microsoft lawsuit in the late 1990s. IBM and Gateway Inc were found to have been overcharged for software for refusing to play Microsoft’s game.
But the settlement does not completely cover all of IBM’s potential claims. It excludes claims relating to IBM’s server hardware and server software businesses, according to Microsoft.
The door is still open for a lawsuit regarding those claims, but IBM has agreed not to sue for two years, and to not try for damages for activities prior to June 30 2002, Microsoft said.
Both IBM and Gateway signed deals with Microsoft in 2003, in which Microsoft agreed to waive the statute of limitations regarding its anticompetitive conduct, so the companies could negotiate settlements without having to resort to litigation.
Microsoft has been making a concerted effort to settle outstanding litigation for the last couple of years. Gateway settled its part of the US government suit for periodic payments totaling $150m this April.
Suits by Sun, Netscape, Blast.com and several US states class actions have also been settled. Of the big companies suing Microsoft only RealNetworks, found in Europe to have been harmed by Windows Media Player bundling, still has an outstanding suit.
