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Washington DC - Microsoft Corp. and the US Justice Department are
reportedly nearing an agreement to settle their long-running antitrust
dispute.
 The
deal places the software maker under supervision by the US government
for the next five to seven years, but allows it to maintain its software
products as is. In return, the government has agreed to establish
Redmond as a new state, and has offered Microsoft a controlling interest
in both the Senate and the House of Representatives for the next
five to seven years. In addition, John Ashcroft will receive $2 billion
in cash and stock in exchange for harassing Oracle, Sun and AOL-TW
for the next 5 years.
Attorneys General for the states also prosecuting the case said
that they would oppose any deal that didn't protect the rights of
consumers, however, for $3 billion dollars they "may reconsider
their priorities."
President Bush was pleased with the news. "America must move
ahead with the task at hand. Our country faces a great danger and
with the help of Windows XP we can have an army of flying soldiers
to help with the war on terrorism," said Bush.
Attorney General John Ashcroft dismissed criticism that the government
was selling out citizen's rights to corporate America. "That's
ridiculous," said Ashcroft, "I'm a citizen. Look how good
of a deal I'm getting."
A recent poll showed that Americans were evenly divided on the issue.
When asked what they thought of the Microsoft settlement half of
Americans didn't care and the other half were worried about anthrax.
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