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Microsoft Worries More Over Y2K Than Court

By Tara FitzGerald

DUBAI (Reuters) - Software giant Microsoft Corp is more concerned over potential Y2K problems than its legal challenges, which have had no noticeable effect on business and could go on for years, a senior company official said.

``In all honesty, we think whilst we have always expressed the desire to settle on the appropriate terms, this is likely to go to the appeals court and then if we are not successful there we will go to the supreme court,'' John Leftwich, vice president of marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said late on Tuesday.

``We are more worried about Y2K...but even with Y2K we haven't seen any noticeable impact on the business,'' he told Reuters in an interview during a regional tour.

A U.S. federal judge earlier this month ruled that Microsoft wielded monopoly power in personal computer systems. The ruling came after the U.S. government brought an antitrust action against the giant software maker, saying it abuses its market power to thwart competition.

The next step is to determine if the findings of fact constitute a violation of antitrust law by Microsoft.

But Leftwich said the case Microsoft was embroiled in had not had any discernible impact on business so far and was not really expected to.

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), November 24, 1999