Bottom line is OK: Microsoft said in a quarterly financial report to federal regulators that it expects no adverse effect on its finances from legal challenges it faces. Microsoft noted under "contingencies" that it faces a lawsuit from Sun Microsystems Inc. filed 7 October and last week's Justice Department charges that it violated a 1995 consent decree.
"Management currently believes that resolving these matters will not have a material adverse impact on the company's financial position, or its results of operations," the company said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Microsoft's confidence stems from its conviction that it's in the right in the legal fights.
"Microsoft does not believe it has violated the consent decree, and intends to vigorously contest this lawsuit [from Sun]," the company said.
— Workstation exports: The House has passed a military authorization bill that includes a provision that could, if it becomes law, interfere with overseas sales of future generations of desktop workstations.
The provision, by way-left Representative Ron Dellums (D-California) and un-left Republican colleague Floyd Spense of South Carolina, would require exports of computers capable of 2,000 million theoretical operations per second - MTOPS, for short - to get special Commerce Department approval. The provision, part of the final bill wrought by House and Senate conferees, is explicitly aimed at limiting the spread of high-end computing technology to Russia, China, and other countries that could use them for strategic projects like nuclear weapons design or testing.
But computer-industry observers say that by the end of next year, computers shipping with high-end Pentium chips and other microprocessors could well exceed 2,000 MTOPS and fall into the class of machines that need special Commerce approval. The Senate takes up the bill next. The Clinton administration has discussed vetoing the bill if it passes both houses.
Reuters and Dan Brekke of the Wired News staff contributed to this report.
