The European Commission antitrust case against Microsoft may be heading for a quiet settlement. The next stage in the case was to have been a hearing in late December, but Microsoft has decided it doesn't want one. Is it possible that The Beast has learned from the US case that the more it says, the worse it looks?
But more likely the move reflects a shift in strategy now the US matter seems largely done and dusted. At the height of the trial it made sense for Microsoft to spin things out, and the threat of several more years of legal wrangling was used to good effect to get the Department of Justice to settle on terms favourable to Microsoft. But that was then, this is now, and anyway, the European antitrust process doesn't have much scope for delaying tactics.
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