For Immediate Release: June 7, 2000

San Francisco, CA – U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson is scheduled to release the final judgment in the Microsoft antitrust case this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. EDT, the U.S. District Court in Washington announced this morning. While it is expected that the ruling will include an order to break up Microsoft, it remains to be seen whether Jackson will divide the company into three competing parts, as he indicated last week, or into two companies, as requested by the U.S. Justice Department.

"Breaking up Microsoft will hurt consumers and the software industry. The government is fighting to dismember a company that has won global success because of its unmatched innovation and consumer satisfaction," stated Helen Chaney, a public policy fellow at the Pacific Research Institute's (PRI) Center for Freedom and Technology.

"The government is trying to convince the American public that a Microsoft break up will generate competition and benefit consumers, like the break up of AT&T in 1984, but the two cases are entirely different. The truth is that the U.S. government just can't resist getting its hands – and regulations – around the booming technology industry," explained Chaney. "An appeals court most likely will, and should, overturn the decision."

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For a copy of Helen Chaney's Trial and Error: The Government's Case Against Microsoft, a policy briefing released by PRI, as well as additional articles on the Microsoft antitrust case, contact Dawn Dingwell by phone at 415/989.0833 x136, or visit PRI's web site at http://www.pacificresearch.org//.

The Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of the principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility. The Institute believes these principles are best encouraged through policies that emphasize a free economy, private initiative, and limited government. By focusing on public policy issues such as health care, welfare, education, and the environment, the Institute strives to foster a better understanding of the principles of a free society among leaders in government, academia, the media, and the business community.