Microsoft News Tracker

The details in the settlement of the Iowa antitrust suit against Microsoft announced last February were revealed today when it was approved by the judge:

A judge in Iowa’s Polk Country District Court Wednesday granted preliminary approval to a settlement in one of the last class-action lawsuits faced by Microsoft Corp. in the wake of the antitrust case brought by the U.S. government in the 1990s.

The agreement dismisses antitrust and damage claims that had been raised in the Iowa case, which could have amounted to US$1 billion or more, according to Microsoft.
…
Microsoft and the complainants announced the Comes v. Microsoft class action lawsuit settlement in February, but Judge Scott Rosenberg’s preliminary ruling allows the parties to reveal details of their agreement.

The agreement, among other things, calls for Microsoft to pay up to US$179.95 million to individual users and businesses that bought Microsoft software between May 18, 1994 and June 30, 2006.

People in Iowa who purchased the products will be able to receive $16 for OSes; $29 for Office, $25 for Excel, and $10 for Word. Individual users will get cash. Volume buyers will get vouchers for products from Microsoft, its competitors and others.
…
A final approval hearing for the Iowa case is scheduled for Aug. 31. Meanwhile there is one other case still scheduled to go to trial, in Mississippi.

Opposing attorney Roxanne Conlin said she didn’t want to settle for vouchers and I guess she got part of what she wanted.

You’ll be happy to know that Microsoft found the Windows Home Server leaker and it was not an Microsoft MVP. But you don’t need a leak - Microsoft just announced a CTP of Home Server and you can apply to be a tester here.

In what is becoming the Web search world’s equivalent of TV ratings, comScore yesterday released their March US search rankings:

• Google was up 0.2% over February to 48.3%
• MSN was up 0.4% to 10.9%
• Yahoo was down 0.6% to 27.5%

Yes, we are talking small numbers and the other search rankings services have their own slightly different ratings (e.g. Hitwise which had both Microsoft and Yahoo down for the month), but it didn’t look good on a day when Wall Street was already less than pleased with Yahoo performance.

One final caveat: search is really a world market and it’s also worthwhile to consider how things are going in non-US venues. To that end, Heather Hopkins of Hitwise UK blogged their UK statistics for the four weeks up to April 15 and Google has nearly an 80% share and is running away with the game while Microsoft is in fourth place behind Yahoo and Ask.com and falling. Two countries don’t make a worldview, but one wonders whether there is some place where Microsoft is doing well.

On Friday of last week, US regulators approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Tellme Networks and the new member of the Microsoft family didn’t let any grass grow under its feet as it announced three free consumer services on Tuesday that will allow users to search for local businesses by speaking or typing their question, and then hearing or seeing the answer:

- Tellme by Voice: Call 1-800-555-TELL and just say “business search” to find a business listing or search for a particular category, such as “flower shops,” from any phone, including a map for the selected listing. Callers can also choose from many other great services like movie tickets, ring tones, sports, news and more.

- Tellme by Text: Send a text message to TELLM (83556) with a business request such as “starbucks san francisco ca” or “pizza boston ma” and get a text message back with the listing and a link to a map.

- Tellme by Mobile: Speak your request and then see the results displayed on your phone screen for a voice + visual search, including maps and driving directions. Download the Tellme by Mobile beta by visiting http://www.tellme.com (or http://m.tellme.com from your mobile phone).

Nothing’s better than free, but one can’t help but wonder where the pony is, since today mobile phone carriers generally charge for 411 calls. Tellme co-founder Angus Davis explains the new services will likely be supported by ads and that the mobile phone service:

… will be available on 50 of the most popular phones from Sprint and Cingular, Davis says. For now, it works with phones built on the Symbian mobile platform and those that run Sun Microsystems’ Java software. Tellme also plans a version for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform.

Looks like Microsoft has some integration work to do on both the technical and monetization sides.