Ebay and Skype have announced they’ve settled the lawsuit and disputes filed against them by IDT. Net2Phone, an affiliate of IDT, had filed suit against both companies in 2006 claiming they had infringed upon their patent for IP based communications.Ebay was involved because they owned Skype at the time. More recently, IDT filed an anti-trust more »

In a continuation of the anti-trust skirmishes that Microsoft is facing, it seems they have decided to lose the battle in hopes of still winning the war. In a confidential memo leaked to Cnet News originally intended for PC makers, it is made clear that Windows 7 will in fact ship in Europe minus the more »

And the cards keep tumbling down. It’s not like we didn’t all see this one coming. After all, three other companies have already admitted they were less than legal when it came to fixing prices for LCD panels sold to U.S. companies Today marks Hitachi Displays Ltd. joining the ranks of those companies charged with conspiring to fix prices, making it four companies and seven individuals charged by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Anti-Trust Division.

A plea agreement just waiting for court approval maintains that Hitachi Displays did agree to cooperate with the Justice Department’s continuing antitrust investigation. Good move guys. According to Scott Hammond, Acting Assistant Attorney in charge of the Anti-Trust Division,

“Hitachi joins three other multinational companies who have admitted to their involvement in fixing prices for LCD panels sold to U.S. companies and that have already paid criminal fines totaling more than $585 million. This case should send a strong message to multinational companies operating in the United States that when it comes to enforcing the U.S. antitrust laws we mean business.”

Hitachi’s share of that $585 million is $31 million, not so big considering it is one of only four hit with the rap. They were nabbed for their role in the conspiracy to fix prices in sales of Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display panels (TFT-LCD) that were sold to Dell.

$899 million euros or $1.4 billion is definitely a huge sum of money and it seems like Microsoft would not just want to lose that amount over an anti-trust ruling that the EU has slapped Microsoft in February 2007. The fine was a result of a case filed against Microsoft for failing to comply with a 2004 ruling. So, Microsoft is appealing the EU ruling and hoping against all hopes that the EU would heed its plea to overturn the ruling or at least reduce the fine.

If you recall, sometime in 2004, the EU slapped Microsoft with a $768 million fine after it failed to comply with an anti-trust ruling that ordered Microsoft to provide rival companies with data that would allow their servers to connect to the Windows platform which was the predominantly used operating systems in majority of the PCs in 2004. In return, Microsoft is allowed to charge reasonable royalties for giving rival companies access to its Windows Platform.