Microsoft ordered to pay $1.52 billion

by Marco Chiappetta — Friday, February 23, 2007, 10:45 AM EDT

The case is long from settled, and there will likely be a littany of appeals and countersuits, but Alcatel-Lucent won the first round in their legal battle against Microsoft and has been awarded a $1.52B (that's Billion) settlement.

"A U.S. federal jury found that Microsoft Corp. infringed audio patents held by Alcatel-Lucent and should pay $1.52 billion in damages, the No. 1 software maker said Thursday. Microsoft said it plans to first ask the trial judge to knock down the ruling and will appeal if necessary. It said the verdict is unsupported by the law and that it had already licensed the technology in question from Germany's Fraunhofer."

This quote from the piece will likely make your jaw drop, "For Microsoft, $1.52 billion represents about six weeks of cash flow or about 15 cents per share - a charge that most analysts would likely take in stride." Would be nice to have that kind of money to through around, huh?

Tags: Microsoft, Red, billion, order, OS, bill, lion, MIC, icrosoft, Micro

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com