Another Settlement That Suits Microsoft

Things certainly are coming up roses for Microsoft. First it settled with the Bush Administration on very lenient terms. Now it has resolved more than 100 antitrust class-actions on terms that read like a company press release. Microsoft will provide software and reconditioned computers to 14,000 low-income schools -- hardly a bad deal for a company with image problems. In all, the Colossus of Redmond will contribute $1.1 billion in goods and services, hardly a stretch for a company sitting on $26 billion in spare cash. And most of it will be in-kind.

The deal shows one thing clearly -- private litigation won't fill the void left when Justice decided to go easy on Microsoft. The software giant still faces a suit being pursued by nine state attorneys general. But the private suits were settled for one simple reason: They faced an almost impossible uphill battle. While the government had to show only that Microsoft was an unlawful monopolist, the private litigants have to demonstrate consumers paid x-dollars and x-cents more for each copy of Windows than they would have had Microsoft not stifled the competition.