Microsoft Corp. confirmed Tuesday, April 15, that a settlement has been reached to resolve class action lawsuits alleging that Microsoft violated Florida's antitrust and unfair competition laws. The settlement was filed Tuesday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, and Judge Henry H. Hamage has given preliminary approval to the settlement.

The settlement provides benefits to consumers and businesses that purchased licenses for Microsoft� operating system, productivity suite, spreadsheet or word processing software between Nov. 16, 1995, and Dec. 31, 2002, for use in the state of Florida. The settlement provides up to a maximum amount of $202 million, which may be claimed and distributed to class action members in the form of vouchers that may be used to buy any manufacturer's desktop, laptop or tablet computers running any operating system, or any software used with those computer products. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will provide one-half of any unclaimed settlement proceeds to Florida's most needy public schools in the form of vouchers. Schools will be able to use these vouchers to purchase a wide range of computer equipment, software and training from any manufacturer. Microsoft estimates that more than 1,600 schools, serving more than 695,000 Florida students, will be eligible. This represents approximately one-third of all Florida students.