Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Tuesday that a $135 million investment in competing software developer Corel--the subject of a U.S. antitrust probe--does nothing to crush Corel's fledgling Linux business.
"Nothing in our agreement supports that," Ballmer told reporters after a speech at the University of Toronto's business school. "Corel is free to do whatever it wants with Linux."
Corel said after the Microsoft investment in October that it planned to spin off and sell the Linux unit, which has a desktop version of the open-source operating system that is an alternative to Microsoft's market-dominating Windows. Corel has said it plans to keep Linux versions of its software.
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