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Links To Final Ruling:
A top Microsoft official says the company is planning to appeal, instead of planning to break-up, following a historic court judgement yesterday.
Wednesday a federal judge
ordered
Microsoft to break into two companies, due to violation of federal antitrust laws.
This was the first corporate breakup order since AT&T in 1984.
Under the ruling, Microsoft would be split into
one company to oversee the Windows operating
system.
A second company would handle all other Microsoft
software, such as its "Word" program.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates says "today is the
first day of the rest" of his company's antitrust
case. He called the ruling an "unjustified
intrusion into the software marketplace."
The case was pressed by the Justice
Department and 19 states. It could go to
the U.S. Court of Appeals or directly to the
Supreme Court.
