Microsoft Denies Offer to Open Code

By Sushuma February 19, 2000 5:28 PM

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(Reuters)-Microsoft strongly denied Thursday that Bill Gates said he would be willing to open the Windows operating system source code to competitors to settle the antitrust suit with the Justice Department.?"Bill did not make any of the comments attributed to him [in an interview with Bloomberg News] about the settlement," Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said.?"The comments they said Bill made are just not true." The suit by the Justice Department and 19 states is in a mediation phase and both sides have been instructed by the mediating judge, Richard Posner, not to talk to the media about details of the case.?Just hours after Gates unveiled Windows 2000, the latest version of its operating system, Bloomberg quoted Gates as saying, "Microsoft Corp.?would be willing to open the source code for Windows software to competitors to settle the antitrust case filed by the U.S.?Department of Justice." Bloomberg later issued a correction saying that the release should have read, "Bill Gates agreed with the statement" that Microsoft would be willing to open the Windows source code in order to settle.?Read more ...?

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