Be Inc settles antitrust case against Microsoft

By Steve Malone

Posted on 8 Sep 2003 at 09:38

Be Inc and Microsoft Corp have settled the antitrust lawsuit filed by Be in February 2002. Be has been paid $23,250,000 by Microsoft, plus legal fees, to drop the case. At the same time Microsoft does not admit to any illegal practices.

Be filed the lawsuit following what it called 'uncompetitive business practices' by Microsoft in the PC OEM business. The company alleged that Microsoft used its position in the market to compel Hitachi and Compaq to drop plans to use the Be OS on new hardware

However, the settlement comes too late for Be which had great hopes in the 1990s of being adopted by Apple to form the new basis of a MacOS. The company finally sold its assets to Palm Inc in 2001 for $11mn. The company only exists to settle the various outstanding legal cases it has. The money received from the settlement, after costs, will be distributed to shareholders.

This is the second private antitrust lawsuit Microsoft has settled this year. Back in May, Microsoft settled its dispute with AOL over uncompetitive practices over the Netscape browser for $750mn.