With pressure from European antitrust regulators mounting, Microsoft's bid to make its multimedia technology a worldwide standard may be running into a headwind.
As part of a strongly worded rebuke to Microsoft released Wednesday, European Commission officials said they're leaning toward forcing the company to either stop bundling its Windows Media software along with its Windows operating system or include rivals' products along with the operating system. "Microsoft's abuses are still ongoing," the Commission staff wrote.
Although the outcome is uncertain, and some analysts said a settlement that protected the status quo was likely, the regulators' stern warning raised the possibility of new hurdles for Microsoft's media strategy. The company has relied in large part on the omnipresence of its software to promote its proprietary Windows Media audio and video format to everyone from record companies to movie theaters. A forced unbundling could diminish that appeal, analysts said.
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