WASHINGTON -- Microsoft argued in an unexpected court filing on Monday that the government said in an earlier case five years ago it would be against the public interest to break up the company.
"The government has already admitted that the breakup of Microsoft would be 'dangerous to the economy's welfare' and 'against the public interest,'" Microsoft argued in an unscheduled filing just two days before a hearing on the case.
District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found early last month that Microsoft violated the nation's antitrust laws by using illegal methods to preserve its monopoly power in the Windows operating system. The government has asked Jackson to break the company into two parts.
"The government had it right in 1995: The law does not countenance the dismemberment of Microsoft, a remedy that would clearly 'act against the public interest,'" Microsoft said in the filing, referring to an earlier action against it by the Justice Department.
A source close to the government case replied that the company's filing "relies on statements made before Microsoft's illegal actions found in this case had even taken place. That Microsoft repeatedly broke the law after those statements were made demonstrates why only structural relief can prevent Microsoft from violating the antitrust laws in the future."
