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Article: U.S. Justice Department Wants Microsoft Split into Two Companies.(Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
- Article date:
- May 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Apr. 29--WASHINGTON--In what would be the biggest antitrust action since the 1984 breakup of AT&T, the Justice Department and 17 states -- including Michigan -- asked a federal judge Friday to split Microsoft into two companies.
In a 17-page filing made just after stock markets closed, Joel Klein, the Justice Department's antitrust chief, argued that the software company should be divided into two firms -- one selling the Windows operating system and the other selling Microsoft's applications, which include such popular products as Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
The breakup may never happen. Years of court review loom. But if, in the end, Microsoft is ...