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Microsoft Corp. is settling a $23.3 million antitrust lawsuit brought last year by defunct operating system maker Be Inc., which alleged that the software giant had illegally thwarted distribution of Be's operating system.
The BeOS emerged in the mid-1990s and promised superior digital media handling capabilities. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company attempted to thrive by getting PC makers to offer its operating system on dual-boot systems, which are PCs loaded with two or more operating systems that users could launch at start-up.
In its 2002 lawsuit, Be alleged that Microsoft had entered into anticompetitive agreements with PC makers, effectively blocking its effort to get its system sold alongside Windows. Microsoft denied the charge.
The lawsuit, which is pending in U.S. District Court in Maryland, was settled without any admission of wrongdoing by Microsoft. The exact terms of the settlement will remain confidential, according to Microsoft, in a statement released late Friday.
The BeOS never developed a measurable percentage of market share, "but it's not to say there are no users. There was a user community for the BeOS, and they were very supportive of the environment," said Al Gillen, an analyst at IDC in Framingham, Mass.
Be was bought by handheld vendor Palm Inc. in 2001.
The settlement ends one legal threat to Microsoft, but the company continues to face antitrust actions brought by the U.S. and the states, and in Europe.
Massachusetts is the only remaining party in the U.S. case, originally brought by 18 states and the Clinton administration. State officials are seeking a tougher remedy then the one approved by U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly last year. A hearing on that case is now scheduled for Nov. 4.
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