Microsoft heads to mediation

Lawyers for Microsoft Corporation and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) met with the new mediator in the Microsoft antitrust case, Judge Richard Posner, for the first time Tuesday. No real issues were hammered out today at the meeting, which was really just a formal introduction for the involved parties. More meetings will be scheduled in the near future. The meeting began at approximately 12:30 p.m. in Chicago, at the Standard Club, near the federal courthouse. The meeting lasted about two hours.

At issue, of course, is the fate of Microsoft: If the company fares as poorly in the upcoming findings of law phase of the trial as it did in the findings of fact, Microsoft could be split into multiple smaller companies or barred from overstepping its bounds into new markets. Microsoft is hoping to reach a settlement with the federal government before the findings of law are announced in January