As part of a 2002 consent decree with the federal government, Microsoft agreed to federal oversight of its business practices to ensure it didn’t use its monopoly power in the computer operating systems market to unfairly inhibit competition and control prices. Portions of that consent decree were set to expire in November 2007, but Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly extended the date in order to hear arguments presented by two groups of states arguing the consent decree should be extended five more years. Industry watchers generally felt that Kollar-Kotelly would let the decree expire on schedule—albeit with admonishments that the government would continue to keep a close eye on the Redmond software giant—in part because the Bush administration’s Justice Department also backed the idea of letting the consent decree expire.
