Microsoft Corp and the US Justice Department are exploring terms of a possible settlement that could end the government’s near five-year-long investigation of the company’s business practices, the Washington Post reported on Friday: quoting sources close to the case, the newspaper said the negotiations revolved around one aspect of the wide-ranging probe – how Microsoft licenses its operating system software to computer manufacturers, and one outstanding issue was how the Justice Department would monitor compliance with an accord, it said; a similar story in the New York Times said Justice was also still probing allegations that Microsoft has withheld vital details of undocumented calls and interfaces from other software developers.
