Microsoft verdict: CSSA slams Microsoft's "poor market awareness" defence

The UK software association CSSA has blasted Microsoft's claim that poor understanding of the IT industry is partly responsible for the anti-trust outcome.

Steve Ballmer, CEO and president of Microsoft, made the comments at a packed press conference in the Netherlands shortly after Judge Jackson's announced his ruling to split the company in two.

He said: "I certainly think we could have done a better job of communicating how this industry works, how competitive it is, how vital it is, how great the value is that has been created for the consumer."

But Tim Conway, policy director of CSSA, said Microsoft cannot base its argument on the ruling being wrong due to a lack of market awareness.

He told silicon.com: "There are examples in some areas of IT, such as the copyright arena, that the law has not kept up with technology, but this is competition law and the US courts have come to a decision based on that law. Competition law is the same in any market."

Speaking on silicon.com's Behind the Headlines programme, Frank Coyle, industry commentator and IT director at John Menzies, said Microsoft's protest at the ruling indicated a "selective memory".

He said: "The laws that are being used against Microsoft are paradoxically the very same that allowed Microsoft in against IBM in the first instance. They've been successfully used against Standard Oil and really opened up that industry to competition. I think Microsoft would do better to just accept the ruling and get on with it."