Posted 11/23/08 at 12:39:58 PM by Justin Kerr

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be forced to take the stand to defend his involvement in the “Vista Capable” marketing initiative which sparked a class action lawsuit back in February. The court has been selectively taking testimony from key Microsoft executives based on the contents of the 158 page bundle of internal emails that Judge Martha Peachman ordered unsealed. Specifically the court seems interested to learn of Ballmer’s involvement in giving Intel a pass on its underpowered integrated graphics hardware which turned out to be barely capable of booting Vista Basic. In one specific chain senior vice president Will Poole emailed Ballmer following a conversation with Intel CEO Paul Otellini stating:

“Steve, following up on the call you took from Paul today, we have changed our program so that Intel's current integrated parts qualify for 'Vista Capable' branding ... This change completely resolves their problem. “

In response Ballmer wrote:

“I thought they had other issues Certainly paul described other (non graphics) issues is this really resolved check back with her thanks”.

In the eyes of Judge Peachman this is sufficient acknowledgement of the issues to justify the need for a deposition. Ballmer has 30 days to schedule his three hour appearance, but he has yet to set a date. A Microsoft spokesman has responded to the press by stating, "We will of course comply with the court's order. Mr. Ballmer's knowledge about the Windows Vista Capable program comes from the executives he empowered to run the program and make decisions, and two of those executives already testified in this case."  Many other spectacularly controversial quotes have come from the internal emails, including a VP of product management Microsoft employee who claims to have been “burnt” by the program. But Officially Microsoft defends the initiative and claims many of the emails and memos released have been taken out of context.

What are your opinions on the trial? Hit the jump and let us know.

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intel, vista, windows, Software, legal, XP, class-action lawsuit, steve ballmer, Vista Capable

Posted 11/04/08 at 04:01:10 PM by Andy Salisbury

According to a recently filed lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Dell has been mighty selective about who they’ve been firing lately.

In May of 2007 Dell had announced that they would be eliminating approximately 8,800 of their employees. These layoffs apparently focused on women and older employees, resulting in a nearly 80 percentile of Dell’s upper management team being male, according to the lawsuit.

“While Dell publicly proclaims a commitment to diversity as ‘an essential element of our corporate values,’ the reality fails to live up to the rhetoric,” states Steven Wittels, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs. “At Dell, it is an understatement to say that women face a glass ceiling; Dell’s glass ceiling is made of concrete.”

According to alleged statistical data the plaintiffs maintain that they’ve lost more than $1 million in salary and other benefits as a result of the discrimination.

But, according to Dell’s web site, their workforce is one third women and 32 percent of their U.S. vice presidents are women or minorities. Perhaps once the plaintiff’s numbers arise we’ll really see what goes on behind closed doors.

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dell, class-action lawsuit, discrimination

Posted 07/11/08 at 08:20:40 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Earlier this month, we had reported that disgruntled Apple shareholders had filed a class-action suit against Steve Jobs and other Apple bigwigs. They had alleged that the defendants including Steve Jobs were complicit in the backdating of stocks from 1997 till 2001 and had benefited from it wrongfully - at the expense of poor shareholders.

But the U.S Justice Department has decided against pursuing the allegations against Jobs and Co. Previously, an internal probe at Apple and an SEC inquest had both given a clean chit to Steve Jobs in this matter.

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case, apple, legal, law, class-action lawsuit, steve jobs, shareholders

Posted 08/07/07 at 12:08:08 AM by Mark Soper

If you're an Iowa-based Microsoft user, time is running out to stake your claim to a $179 million settlement.

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windows, microsoft, class-action lawsuit, Excel, MS-DOS, Works Suite, Word