Here are some law suits bill gates's companies have paid for fucking his way to the top. for starters.
I know this is going to be a buzz killer for you. This is no doubt what you are narrow minded about.
Microsoft's lawsuit payouts amount to around $9 billion
Updated Twice the GDP of Cambodia
By
Désiré Athow
Thu Jul 14 2005, 15:35
* UPDATE Additional material at the end of this article.
MICROSOFT HAS had a long, a very long history of litigation, court orders, patent infringements and antitrust lawsuits against it since the very beginning of its history. We;ve managed to draw up a partial list of these.
The surprising thing is not only the number of those lawsuits against Microsoft - at one time, it had more than 130 pending - but more importantly, the sheer amount of money it represents.
The Redmond giant has been ordered to pay nearly $9 billion, a figure which is set to rise with some lawsuits still to be ruled on.
This covers everthing from the miniscule $2 million paid to the state of Iowa, as a fine following the 1999 lawsuit against MS for overcharging customers, to the huge $2 billion one paid to the Enemy, Sun Microsystems.
Some notable points that emerged during my research.
1. Many of the lawsuits, especially the federal ones, were settled with Microsoft giving away free vouchers and free software for the educational sector in those states. Some have argued that the 1999 lawsuit was a trojan horse to break the hold of Apple on that market.
2. Microsoft has several times invested in the companies which have sued it. AT&T - where they threw in $5 billion, Apple - $150 million and Immersion - $26 million.
3. Though Microsoft is keen to emphasise the fact that they are not guilty of any wrongdoing in many of the lawsuits, they would prefer to pay rather than anything else. This has lead some observers to speculate that fines has been a way to "oil" the progress of Microsoft. Note also that no one has been imprisoned and that apart from paying out huge amounts of money, Microsoft can carry on its business as usual.
4. The amount of money paid by Microsoft for PR and for the lawsuits by itself is in the region of $500 million during the past 10 years.
5. The monies to be paid are often distributed through vouchers and therefore, the sums below are maximums rather than effectively paid as a sizeable part of those vouchers goes uncollected.
To date, there are 48 lawsuits that have been documented online, 39 of which have had the fines clearly defined and the rest either to be decided or with undisclosed fines. Below is the complete list in alphabetical order. If there is any lawsuit that I missed or any other information or amounts that are incorrect, please do inform me. µ
Alacritech
Undisclosed
Kansas
$32,000,000
AOL
$750,000,000
Maryland
$10,500,000
Apple
$250,000,000
Massachusetts
$34,000,000
Arizona
$104,600,000
Minnesota
$240,000,000
AT&T
Undisclosed
Montana
$12,300,000
Be
$23,250,000
Mythic
Still in court
Bristol
$4,100,000
Nebraska
$22,600,000
Burst
$60,000,000
New Mexico
$3,150,000
California
$1,100,000,000
North Carolina
$89,000,000
Carlos Armando (1)
$8,960,000
North Dakota
$9,000,000
Columbia
$6,200,000
Novell
$536,000,000
Discrimation Suit (2)
Still in court?
Private (5)
$10,500,000
DR DOS/Caldera
$500,000,000
Real
Still in court
Employee fired (3)
$ 9,000,000
Sendo
Undisclosed
Eolas
$521,000,000
South Dakota
$9,330,000
EU
$613,000,000
Daum (4)
$8,600,000
Florida
$202,000,000
SPX
$62,000,000
Forgent
Still in court
Stac
$83,000,000
Gateway
$150,000,000
Sun
$1,950,000,000
Go
Still in court
Perma Te
$96,000,000
IBM
$850,000,000
Tennessee
$64,000,000
Immersion
$35,000,000
Vermont
$9,700,000
Intertrust
$440,000,000
Wordperfect
Still in court
Iowa
$2,000,000
E-data
Still in court
