Novell has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft,
accusing the software giant of unfairly eliminating competition for
office productivity applications during the time Novell owned the
WordPerfect word processing application and the Quattro Pro
spreadsheet application.
Novell said it intended to move forward with the lawsuit, when
it announced a settlement with Microsoft on other antitrust claims.
In that settlement, Microsoft agreed to pay Novell $536m (£289m),
and Novell agreed to resolve all antitrust claims relating to
Novell's NetWare product, and any other products it currently
owns.
Novell and Microsoft engaged in "extensive" discussions in an
attempt to resolve the WordPerfect claims without a lawsuit,
according to a Novell press release.
The WordPerfect lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Utah,
seeks unspecified damages from Microsoft.
Novell's lawsuit accuses Microsoft of withholding critical
technical information about Windows from Novell, thus impairing
Novell's ability to develop new versions of WordPerfect and other
Novell office productivity applications. The complaint also alleges
that Microsoft integrated technologies into Windows designed to
exclude WordPerfect and other Novell applications.
In addition, Novell asserts that Microsoft used its monopoly
power to prevent hardware partners from offering WordPerfect and
other applications to customers. The lawsuit is based in part on
evidence uncovered in the US government's antitrust case against
Microsoft, according to Novell.
Although Novell no longer owns WordPerfect and Quattro Pro, the
claims are "important and hold considerable value for Novell", said
Joseph A LaSala, Novell's senior vice-president and general
counsel.
Novell merged with WordPerfect in June 1994. In a related
transaction at the same time, Novell purchased Quattro Pro, a
spreadsheet product, from Borland International.
The combined value of WordPerfect and Quattro Pro at the time of
the transactions was over $1bn, according to Novell. WordPerfect
and Quattro Pro were then sold to Corel Corporation in March 1996
for approximately $170m.
WordPerfect claimed almost half of the word processing market in
1990, but that share fell to less than 10% by the time Novell sold
WordPerfect and related applications, according to Novell.
Microsoft disputed Novell's claims that it was responsible for
WordPerfect's declining market share. WordPerfect declined to
develop products for early versions of Windows, and WordPerfect's
market share had already begun to decline before Novell acquired
the application, Microsoft noted.
"Through this lawsuit, Novell seeks to blame Microsoft for its
own mismanagement and poor business decisions," the Microsoft press
release said.
"The record is clear that bad decisions and business mistakes
are the reasons WordPerfect fell out of favor with consumers. It’s
also unfortunate, and surprising, that Novell has just now chosen
to litigate over a business it owned for a very short time and that
it sold more than eight years ago."
Grant Gross writes for IDG News Service