Microsoft Seeks Postponement Of Remedy Hearings

Microsoft

On Tuesday afternoon, the software giant filed a motion in U.S. District Court that said it needs more time to consider a revised remedy proposal that nine states and the District of Columbia had submitted on Monday.

The dissenting states and District of Columbia made "substantial" revisions to Microsoft's revised remedy proposals without giving the company any notice, according to a statement issued by Microsoft. "The states' extensive, last-minute changes require a limited and reasonable postponement," the statement said. "This time will be used for the limited purposes of quickly conducting additional discovery so we have an opportunity to present a case that addresses the adverse affects of these new proposals on the industry and on consumers."

In the court filing, Microsoft said the dissenting states revised 11 out of 16 sections of the previously proposed remedy. "Unless the court grants a short postponement of the remedy hearing to permit Microsoft to conduct limited additional discovery, Microsoft will go to trial without having any opportunity to depose the nonsettling states' witnesses about their understanding of the meaning of the substantially revised proposed remedy and its likely impact on consumers, the PC industry and Microsoft," the filing said. "Microsoft thus will be severely prejudiced by the nonsettling states' 11th-hour revisions to their proposed remedy."

The remedy hearings are slated to begin on March 11 in Washington, D.C.

On March 4, in a deposition released publicly, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the harsher remedies proposed by the dissenting states would force Microsoft to produce and support thousands of different versions of its Windows operating system and that the opening up of APIs would effect wide-scale "cloning" of Windows. He noted that it was impossible to produce a stripped-down version of Windows without breaking the product.

Shortly after Ballmer's statements were released that day, the dissenting states--including California, Connecticut and Iowa--proposed a revised remedy that would specify that Microsoft wouldn't be required to sell several different versions of Windows. Instead, the company would have to sell just one "modular" Windows version from which software features such as Internet browsers, media players and instant messaging could be removed.