Microsoft agrees to pay Novell EUR 415m

Microsoft yesterday declared that an end was in sight to its long-running antitrust problems, as it buried the hatchet with some of its fiercest critics in the information technology industry.

The agreements included a ceasefire with the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a technology trade group that was a thorn in Microsoft's side for more than a decade with its campaigns against the world's biggest software company in Washington and Brussels.

Microsoft also agreed to pay $536 million (€415 million) to settle part of a private antitrust case brought by Novell, a US software company that failed in the early 1990s to build a presence rivalling Microsoft in desktop-computer software.

Yesterday's settlements also deal a blow to the European Commission, which has relied on the support of Novell and the CCIA in its six-year antitrust campaign against Microsoft.

Meanwhile, Microsoft released an estimate of what it would cost to resolve its remaining antitrust cases, signalling that an end could finally be in sight. It put the total at $950 million, including $200 million to resolve overcharging suits in a number of US states.

It has already spent more than $3 billion over the past year-and- a-half to settle private suits from several big rivals, including Sun Microsystems and Time Warner, owner of Netscape, whose fight with Microsoft prompted the US government to file its own suit.

The settlement with the CCIA highlights the headway Microsoft has made in building bridges with the wider technology industry in recent years - though the software company's critics in Silicon Valley maintain that it has succeeded mainly by using its large cash reserves to buy the support of former critics.

The most immediate effects of the ceasefire will be felt in Brussels, where Microsoft was found guilty in March of breaking competition rules.

That decision has been legally challenged by Microsoft, and the Commission now stands to lose two of its closest supporters in the battle to defend the decision in court.