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Tech Leaders Unite Against Microsoft

Nokia, IBM, Oracle join EU antitrust case over Explorer's dominance

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 15, 2009 1:31 PM CDT

(Newser) – A technology consortium whose members include IBM, Nokia, and Oracle has joined the European Commission’s antitrust case against Microsoft, the Financial Times reports. The consortium, Ecis, joins Google and the Mozilla Foundation in accusing Microsoft of using Windows to distort the web browser market in favor of Internet Explorer. Ecis member firms will testify against Microsoft, which was notified of the complaint by the EU's executive branch in January.

The pile-on of industry leaders shows just how important the web browser is in the current technological climate. IE, which comes with the Windows OS, controls 65.5% of the global browser market share. “Rival browsers like Opera and Firefox get better reviews than Internet Explorer, but IE maintains the highest market share,” said an Ecis spokesman. “It is not a market that is functioning on merits.”

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The internet explorer logo. (Microsoft)

In this Nov. 24, 2008 file photo, an IBM office is shown in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)

The entrance to the IBM plant, in Essex Junction, Vt., is seen Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

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The market has been severely distorted by Microsoft’s tying of Internet Explorer to Windows.
- Thomas Vinje, lawyer and Ecis spokesman

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Tech Leaders Unite Against Microsoft