DOJ's Klein: Break Microsoft into two companies

Microsoft should be broken into two companies that are "barred from colluding," U.S. Department of Justice antitrust chief Joel Klein said Friday. Klein was speaking at a press conference after the DOJ filed documents with U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson asking that the software giant be broken into an operating system company and an applications company. Klein said the OS company would own Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows CE -- the applications company would own Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and MSN.com. The OS company would be allowed to distribute the Internet Explorer, Klein said, "but it will have to develop its own browser in the future. ... After the separation the two companies will be barred from colluding with one another. Each company will have the incentive to compete vigorously." Full story to follow. -- Joel Deane, ZDNet News