The Justice Department announced Thursday that it no longer is interested in seeking a court-ordered breakup of software giant Microsoft. The department also said it will not pursue the bundling issues in its protracted antitrust suit against the software giant. The agency is taking these steps to obtain “prompt, effective and certain relief for consumers,” it said in a press release.The release follows a judge’s order for the two sides to produce a joint status report by Sept. 14. The government told Microsoft that it does not intend to pursue a breakup and will drop the bundling issue to “facilitate consultations” in the joint report, the department said. The about-face wasn’t totally unexpected. At the time of his confirmation hearings to be attorney general, John Ashcroft hedged when asked repeatedly by senators about the government’s commitment to pursuing the lawsuit against Microsoft.
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