It's been 10 years since the Microsoft antitrust case began. The cost of the litigation - in time, money, and diversion of executive resources - has been enormous. With the nation transfixed by Enron's $60 billion collapse, it's worth recalling that Microsoft's shareholders suffered an $80 billion erosion in market value on a single day - April 3, 2000, when Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issued his conclusions of law.
Now the case continues on two parallel tracks: (1) In a Washington, D.C. courtroom, a federal judge ponders whether a long-awaited settlement between Microsoft and the Justice Department serves the public interest. (2) In that same court, before the same judge, nine defecting states - out of 20 who had originally joined the federal suit - demand that Microsoft's conduct be more severely restricted. Both court proceedings are based on the same trial, the same findings of fact, and the same conclusions of law. Both proceedings allege the same injuries to the same people.
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