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Microsoft Settles With Gateway, Takes Charges

Microsoft yesterdasy said that it has settled with Gateway over anti-trust related claims and will pay $150M in a settlement to Gateway, in addition to a pre-tax charge of $550M to reserve for anti-trust related claims. The software giant said that the settlement will be spread over four years, and that Gateway will release all antitrust claims against Microsoft based on past conduct. Gateway is expected to use the funds for marketing initiatives, as well as research, development, and testing of new products that support Microsoft products. The claims against Microsoft came from the United States v. Microsoft antitrust case overseen by U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, where Microsoft was found to have violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by exercising monopoly control over PC operating systems. That lawsuit, which stemmed from a 1990 Federal Trade Commission investigation, found that Microsoft had forced computer makers to include the Internet Explorer browser as a condition of licensing Windows--actions which resulted in forcing the then-dominent Netscape Navigator browser to negligible market share.