The Department instead propose that “not later than four months” after a final judgement on the remedy, the company must submit a plan for the break up.
Government lawyers had asked the permission of the court to present the legal brief with areas of agreement on Microsoft’s most recent filing. However, most agreements were minor and related to matters such as agreeing definitions. For example, the government has agreed to call the break up a “divestiture” rather than a “reorganisation”. 20 pages of Microsoft proposals were rejected by the government.
Microsoft has until tomorrow to respond to the filing. Judge Jackson can then give his ruling on the remedy to be imposed on Microsoft following the finding of its anti-competitive practices, although Microsoft’s lawyers do not expect him to disagree with the government’s proposal of breaking the company in two.