Posted 10/27/09 at 06:21:51 PM by Jason Barry

There aren’t tons of details about what Sony is alluding too, but they have outwardly admitted to U.S. antitrust investigations. Antitrust regulators are taking a closer look at Sony's optical disk drive operations.

Sony Optiarc America, in particular, produces the Sony line of optical disk drives for DVD, CD, and Blu-ray media formats and is the focus of the investigation. Sony didn’t hint to which products are of interest, but if you like to follow the gossip circles (or have a bit of common-sense) it is likely something to do with Blu-ray.

Blu-ray’s prices have yet to see the traditional price declination expected from a hot technology that has been released over three years ago. In fact, prices have remained steady over that time despite HD-DVD disappearing from the picture.
 
Further, the technology hasn’t skyrocketed in popularity the way Sony expected and antitrust investigations are not likely to help that process along.

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Posted 10/13/09 at 10:01:49 AM by Pulkit Chandna

While the U.S Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is busy probing “the Google/Apple interlocking directorates issue” the two companies are trying their best to placate the trade regulator.

A couple of months after Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple’s board of directors, the last surviving link between the boards of the two companies has also snapped with Genentech chairman Arthur D. Levinson resigning from Google’s board. But he will continue to remain on Apple’s board of directors.

 “Art has been a key part of Google’s success these past five years, offering unvarnished advice and vital counsel on every big issue and opportunity Google has faced,” Schmidt said, hailing Levinson’s contribution.

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Posted 06/06/09 at 11:05:23 PM by Justin Kerr

Russia’s state run anti-monopoly service has launched a formal investigation into Microsoft over cutbacks in the supply of Windows XP. The agency believes that Microsoft has violated antimonopoly legislation by intentionally limiting the stock of Windows XP to Russia in both retail, and OEM editions which come preinstalled on new PC’s. Analysts claim that Windows Vista continues to be available, while the ongoing demand for XP both by the public, and the government, remains unsatisfied.

Microsoft has yet to formally address the issue, but according to the Moscow regional office, nobody from the anti-monopoly service has tried to contact them. "We (have) always answered antimonopoly service questions in full and intend to continue this practice in future," Microsoft spokeswoman Marina Levina said by telephone. Full scale investigations by the antimonopoly service in Russia are rare, and Microsoft will be given more details by July 24th.

The accusations being made in Russia are drastically different than previous antitrust cases leveled by the EU and USA. In both these cases, the complaints were focused on software bundling for which it was fined $708 million in 2004 by the EU.

Could Microsoft be intentionally limiting Windows XP supply in Russia to help push Vista?

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Posted 10/28/07 at 11:32:51 PM by Erin Simon

After several telecommunications companies are revealed to be discriminating which content they'll transmit, two senators start the investigative ball rolling.

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