The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

MS COO defends ‘right to innovate’

And he's very disappointed about the judge...

  • print
  • alert

Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery

MS on Trial Microsoft COO Bob Herbold said yesterday in Philadelphia: "We have to have the right to listen to consumers and modify our products and take our chances in the marketplace. That's called the right to innovate, and that's a right that's worth fighting for." Herbold, generally reckoned to be number three in the Microsoft power structure (although Allchin could be a challenger) was being interviewed by the Philadelphia Enquirer when he was in town to talk to the Eastern Technology Council. Herbold said, referring to Judge Jackson's Findings of Fact: "We believe that this is an incredibly dynamic and fast-moving and innovative industry, and to see it portrayed in the manner it was portrayed disappointed us." It seems a trifle misleading to suggest there was a slur on the industry as a whole, rather than on Microsoft's conduct. Herbold concluded that "We are confident that we are on the side of the angels" and hoped that a settlement could be achieved. DoJ lawyers met Judge Posner this week in the same private club in Chicago, but this time without anybody from Microsoft being present. Presumably, he will meet Microsoft lawyers without the DoJ being present in due course, in order to let them know about any flexibility in the DoJ's terms, so far as a consent decree is concerned. ® Complete Register Trial coverage

Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery

More from The Register

Microsoft to open Windows Stores inside 600 Best Buy locations
Product showcases 'must be seen to be believed'
Author Iain (M) Banks falls to cancer at 59
Misses the release of his final work
 breaking news
What did the Lehman Brothers implosion look like to a techie?
Insider tells all about the Gnab Gib at Lehmans
It's official: 'tweet' an English word – not just in the avian sense
If the Oxford English Dictionary says it is so, then it is so
 breaking news
The only Waze is Google: Ad giant tipped to gobble map app 'for $1.3bn'
Pac-Man-satnav-ish upstart in bidding war with Apple, Facebook
 breaking news
1-in-10 e-tomes 'are self-published'... most are 'rubbish' says book ed
Publishing man scoffs at go-it-alone writers, ursines still fouling in forests
 breaking news
Facebook RSS reader said to uncloak June 20
Secret event scooped by Scottish developer?