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Anti-trust trial arguments Microsoft, US Justice Dept go head to head today

WASHINGTON: Microsoft and the US Justice Department go head to head on Tuesday as they present final arguments in the company's anti-trust trial, in which the government is accusing the world's largest software manufacturer of monopolistic practices. The Redmond, Washington-based corporation said last week that it believed that "a common sense settlement should be possible". But the two sides positions are said to be so far apart that they have not yet been able to meet together with Judge Richard Posner, the mediator appointed late last year.

"The possibility of an agreement is less than fifty-fifty, more like 30 percent," said William Kovacic, an expert in anti-trust law at George Washington University. But Kovacic believes negotiations between Microsoft and government attorneys have not been a total waste of time.

"I have assumed the fact that if they've gone so far it's that they haven't been useless," observed Kovacic. "If they had been dead on arrival, we would have known that in January".

But The Washington Post on Friday quoted a source close to the negotiations as saying: "I am not optimistic about settlement ... There can't be a settlement between now and Tuesday Ñ it's just too late". AFP