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Hixie's Natural Log

2003-05-30 08:41 UTC AOL Agrees to Get Under Microsoft's Desk

So recently, Microsoft and AOL settled their pending antitrust lawsuit.

Let's recap what the deal was. To do this, I'm going to use AOL's own word, so this is going to be heavily biased in AOL's favour, thus making it look like AOL got a better deal than it did.

First, let's examine what Microsoft got out of the deal:

  1. Microsoft got AOL to agree to further increase the marketshare of its flagship Internet product, Internet Explorer.
  2. Microsoft got AOL to agree to further increase the marketshare of its flagship multimedia product, Windows Media Player.
  3. Microsoft got AOL to agree to further increase the marketshare of its flagship instant messaging product, MSN Messenger.
  4. Microsoft got AOL to agree to further increase the marketshare of its upcoming anti-freedom technology, Microsoft Digital Rights Management Software.
  5. Microsoft got AOL to agree to investigate how Microsoft could redistribute AOLTW content.
  6. Microsoft got AOL to agree to drop its antitrust lawsuit.
  7. Microsoft got AOL to agree to let its best programmers visit the Microsoft campus, at a time when most AOL employees are looking for alternate emloyment.

Secondly, let's examine what AOL got out of the deal:

  1. AOL got Microsoft to agree to pay about 2% of Microsoft's cash on hand to AOL.
  2. AOL got Microsoft to agree to give users a choice: MSN, a Microsoft-sponsored OSP running on Microsoft's Trident, or AOL, an AOL-sponsored OSP running on Microsoft's Trident.
  3. AOL got Microsoft to agree to give them a subscription to MSDN.
  4. AOL got Microsoft to agree to not break their existing legal obligations.

Well, congratulations to AOL on yet another stunning negotiation. Incidentally, I would like to invite the entire AOL legal team to one of our games of Monopoly. Let's play for real money.