&8226;Read the article below about Microsoft anti-trust suit.
&8226;Choose the best sentence from the opposite page to fill each of the gaps.
&8226;For each gap 8--12, mark one letter (A--G) on your Answer Sheet.
&8226;Do not use any letter more than once.
WHAT NEXT IN THE MICROSOFT SUIT
The Justice Department's top anti-trust prosecutor says this week that the government is looking at a full range of remedies. It wants to find the appropriate punishment following a judge's ruling that Microsoft is a monopoly, including the possible breakup of the software company. "We are looking at the range of sanctions; we're talking to people in the industry, people who work with Microsoft, people who manufacture computers and we're doing an analysis to make sure that we have a remedy that will promote competition, assure innovation and promote consumer choice, " he said. He thought the judge was quite clear that innovation has been impaired and he had heard all the evidence.
Meanwhile, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said in a letter published today that the software maker is committed to "a fair and responsible" resolution of the anti-trust trial.
(8) "We've been here before in a first lawsuit, " he said. "And eventually the courts came out on the side of the consumer, saying that all companies should have the ability to innovate their products and take their chances in the marketplace."
(9) "As this case moves toward resolution, Microsoft's 30, 000 employees are focused on creating the next generation of products that will deliver the benefits of the Information Age, anytime, anywhere and on any device, " Gates wrote. (10) .
On Friday, Jackson took Microsoft to task for numerous instances of anti-competitive behavior, including its dealings with America Online over the latter's browser choices, its contracts with PC makers, which forced them to feature prominently the Internet Explorer Web browser instead of Netscape's competing product. (11) .
The judge noted that Microsoft's own studies confirmed that Microsoft could have charged only $ 49 per Windows upgrade and still remained profitable, and that it had enough power within the market to charge $ 89. (12) It is through high "barriers to entry", in other words, by making it more costly to create competing software.
A Bob Herbold, the executive vice president and chief operating officer for Microsoft, said that the judge's ruling this week is just a first step in the process that is just getting under way.
B Microsoft's competitors know that the company in fact has a referee starting directly over the shoulder every time it moves on a playing field.
C What's more, Microsoft erected the barriers to keep others out of the marketplace.
D The Justice Department's top anti-trust prosecutor says this week that the government is looking at a full range of remedies.
E Jackson said that the company took that additional profit and invested it not in its own products but in efforts to keep other companies out of various software markets. Meanwhile Bill Gates, in a full-page advertisement published in the Washington Post and addressed to the company's customers, partners and shareholders, commented on Friday's ruling.
G He claimed that Microsoft is committed to resolving this matter in a fair and responsible manner, while ensuring that the fundamental principles of consumer benefit and innovation are protected.
(8)