12/16, 8:05pm
Judge says jury could not decide on Novell suit
(Update: clarification) Judge J. Frederick Motz on Friday dismissed a longstanding Novell lawsuit against Microsoft. The antitrust complaint, filed in 2004, was tossed after a jury couldn't reach a uniform verdict on whether or not Microsoft had abused its market lead by changing code that broke WordPerfect's Windows 95 support just before the 16-year-old OS arrived. Jurors said they were "hopelessly deadlocked" and didn't see any extensions of deliberations solving the problem.
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11/22, 3:50pm
Attachmate buys Novell with Microsoft help
Attachmate today bought Novell in a deal that has triggered worries of renewed lawsuits and legal pressure from Microsoft. The share-based purchase, equivalent to about $2.2 billion, had only Attachmate acquiring the SuSE Linux owner directly, but Microsoft in an SEC 8K filing saw 882 patents transfer to CPTN Holdings, a patent holding alliance Microsoft runs. The Windows developer was "pleased" with the deal, but Deputy General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez wouldn't say which patents had been acquired or explain motives.
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10/20, 12:45pm
Microsoft NYC deal must separate software
Microsoft on Wednesday reached a deal with New York City to supply software directly to local government but which avoids the controversial practices of earlier years. The deal will give copies of Office and other software to as many as 100,000 people in city agencies but will prevent Microsoft from demanding that software come in bundles. Workers will be put into three different tiers depending on the apps they need and will pay less for the reduced bundles.
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