Symantec-Microsoft Feud Ends, Angels Weep

Joe Wilcox News Brief: Some advice to Microsoft: Don't settle a lawsuit on April Fools Day. No one will believe you.

The idea that Microsoft and Symantec could agree on anything was about as believable as the BBC's video about flying penguins. But, aghast, the two companies have settled the lawsuit filed in May 2006 by Symantec.

In the lawsuit, Symantec accused Microsoft of intellectual property pilfering. Allegedly, Symantec technologies found their way into Windows Vista. The issue: Volume Manager, which Symantec got when it acquired Veritas about two years earlier. Microsoft claimed a previous Veritas licensing agreement covered Windows Vista. Symantec disagreed.

From the start, I viewed the lawsuit as a Vista-halting tactic designed to win Microsoft concessions. Microsoft is most vulnerable to antitrust complaints and most likely to acquiesce before a new operating system ships. Microsoft made changes, such as publishing security APIs for the Windows Vista 64-bit kernel, in response to McAfee and Symantec complaints.

But Symantec's sniping continued even after Vista shipped, with the company blaming Microsoft for declining security software sales. Then there is that new antitrust investigation in Europe, where Symantec already had filed at least one complaint against Microsoft.

Pay up to shut up is a tried-and-true Microsoft strategy. The company settled with nearly all European complainants, including AOL, RealNetworks and Sun Microsystems, either during the case or in the appellate process.

So, this one Microsoft and Symantec feud draws to end. Neither company has publicly disclosed the terms of the settlement. Yet. These are public companies. If money changed hands, there will have to be some disclosure in the near future.

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