News

EC Appoints Advisor to Monitor Microsoft

Professor Neil Barrett, a computer scientist and specialist in researching Internet crime, will serve as a technical advisor to the European Commission on questions of Microsoft's compliance with the EC's 2004 decision against Microsoft.

The Commission, which reserves sole authority to determine Microsoft's compliance, picked Barrett this week from a list of candidates submitted by Microsoft. Barrett begins his mandate immediately.

Barrett's role is to provide impartial, expert advice to the Commission on compliance issues. Barrett will have the option of hiring expert advisors to assist him.

The Commission decided in March 2004 after a five-year investigation that Microsoft broke the EC Treaty ban on abuse of monopoly power by leveraging a near monopoly in the PC operating systems market onto the markets for workgroup server operating systems and media players. The decision included a fine of 497 million Euros and several remedies.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

Featured

  • Broadcom Revamps VMware Partner Program Again

    Broadcom recently announced a significant update regarding its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, coinciding with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a key component in Broadcom’s private cloud strategy.

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.

  • Report: Security Initiatives Can't Keep Pace with Cloud, AI Boom

    The increasingly fast adoption of hybrid, multicloud, and AI systems is easily outgrowing existing security measures, according to a recent global survey by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and exposure management firm Tenable.