Microsoft, the EU and Facebook (1/2)

This week, Microsoft agreed to end its fight against European Union competition officials. The world's largest software company withdrew its remaining appeals at a European court. Microsoft has faced record European Union fines and may still owe more. But it says it wants to put its energies into meeting its legal duties and strengthening its relationship with the European Commission.

In two thousand four, the commission ordered Microsoft to share information with competitors. This information would help them develop software for server computers to "interoperate," or work easily, with Windows.

Windows is the Microsoft operating system found on more than ninety percent of personal computers. The company argued that it needed to protect trade secrets.

But now, Microsoft has agreed to share secret information with developers for a one-time payment of ten thousand euros. That is about fourteen thousand dollars at current exchange rates.Microsoft also wanted to charge competitors almost six percent of the sales from products that use its information. But in the end it agreed to charge less than half a percent for worldwide use.

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这周，微软同意结束其对欧盟竞争委员会的对抗。世界上最大的软件公司撤回了其在欧洲法院保留的上诉。微软已接受了欧洲联盟罚金的事实，并可能还附有许多欠款。但微软表示，希望把自己的精力放在讨论依法履行职责，并加强其与欧洲联盟委员会的关系上。

在2004年，委员会要求微软与竞争者分享信息。这些信息将帮助他们开发用于装有Windows系统的服务计算机间交互操作或者使用更便利的软件。

90%以上的个人电脑使用微软的Windows操作系统。该公司辩称，它必须要保护商业秘密。

但是如今，微软已同意与一次性付款1万欧元分的开发商享秘密信息。按目前汇率，约为1.4万美元。微软还想要像竞争对手索要使用此信息产品几乎6 ％的销售额。但是，最后其同意向全球使用者收取少于0.5%的销售额