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The Korean Internet portal firm Daum Communications has become the second company in as many months to withdraw an anti-trust complaint against Microsoft. Daum reached a US$30 million settlement with the U.S-based software giant in return for withdrawing its complaint with the Korean Fair Trade Commission and a W10 billion (about US$10 million) lawsuit over Microsoft¡¯s bundling of its instant messenger software into the Windows operating system.
Microsoft promised Daum a cash payment of US$10 million, advertising commitment worth US$10 million and joint business projects producing profits of US$10 million. In return, Daum will withdraw the lawsuit and the petition with the Korean antitrust agency.
In dealing with a slew of antitrust lawsuits, Microsoft pursues a policy of paying out vast amounts in compensation to avoid the law courts. It paid Netscape $750 million to end a protracted dispute in May 2003. The world¡¯s biggest software maker also paid $536 million to Novell, $1.95 billion to Sun Microsystems and $150 million to Gateway to settle disputes. Last month, Microsoft agreed on a $761 million settlement with RealNetworks, which had also filed a complaint against Microsoft here.
The company tries to reach settlements however expensive to avoid further damage to its battered image from legal proceedings over its monopolistic practices.
However, the FTC will continue its deliberations on the company¡¯s alleged violations of Korea¡¯s antitrust laws even after Daum withdraws its petition and despite Microsoft¡¯s threat in a recent report not to offer the latest version of Windows in Korea if it remains in the watchdog¡¯s sight. The FTC says the probe aims to find out how much damage any monopolistic practices caused customers here.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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