Eight years after it was first filed, Novell’s antitrust suit against Microsoft finally appears to be nearing its end.
A federal judge on Monday granted Microsoft’s motion to dismiss the suit, which claimed the software behemoth violated antitrust law by withholding key technical information required to make Novell’s WordPerfect and Quattro Pro products compatible with Windows 95. Novell had argued that Microsoft’s alleged actions kicked the legs out from under both products, forcing the company to sell them to Corel in 1996 for substantially less than their more than $1 billion purchase price.
