If Microsoft Corp thought it had got Ray Noorda out of its hair when he retired from Novell Inc, took a few of his favorite toys with him and formed Caldera Inc around them, then it was wrong. Orem, Utah-based Caldera yesterday announced it had acquired DR-DOS and related assets from Novell, including an outstanding claim against Microsoft alleging anti-competitive practices, a claim Caldera now intends to press through the courts. The same day – ironically some kind of legal holiday in Utah – Caldera filed an anti-trust suit against Microsoft alleging illegal conduct… calculated and intended to prevent and destroy competition in the computer software industry. The suit alleges that Micorosft’s predatory practices had prevented DR-DOS from gaining market share over the last five years in a market estimated to be worth $20bn between 1991 and 1995. The suit seeks treble damages but does not specify a dollar sum. It asks that the court order Microsoft to refrain from the use of anti-competitive practices and policies including per-processor licensing, require it to share operating system APIs with Caldera for the next ten years, and make its operating systems compatible with Caldera products. The lawsuit explains that Novell gave up marketing and development of DR-DOS in September 1994 as a result of Microsoft’s predatory and anticompetitive conduct. Now Caldera intends to reintroduce the full line of DR-DOS products to the market and to offer additional product features.
