[link|http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/aptech_story.asp?category=1700&slug=Microsoft%20Settlement|].

SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. agreed Friday to pay $23.3 million to Be Inc. to settle an antitrust lawsuit that claimed the software giant negotiated deals with computer makers that cut out the smaller company's competing operating system.

Microsoft admits no wrongdoing under the settlement. The company did not disclose further details.

The lawsuit, filed in February 2002, is one of four private antitrust suits brought against Microsoft after a federal judge's ruling that Microsoft had acted as an illegal monopoly based on its dominance in desktop operating systems.

Redmond-based Microsoft resolved one of the private cases in May, agreeing to pay AOL Time Warner $750 million to settle its private antitrust lawsuit on behalf of AOL's Netscape division. The other two, filed by Sun Microsystems and Burst.com, remain in pretrial proceedings in federal court in Maryland.

With only $50 B in cash, how will they ever afford it.

[image|/forums/images/warning.png|0|This is sarcasm...]



Cringely (at PBS.org) thinks that the Burst case may be a [link|http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20030828.html|big deal].

Cheers,
Scott.