(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), America's largest taxpayer watchdog group, today belittled the ruling in the penalty phase of the government's antitrust suit against the Microsoft Corporation.  Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered that Microsoft be broken up into two separate companies:  one producing operating system software and one producing applications software.

"The only good thing about this decision is that it won't last long," said CAGW President Thomas Schatz.  "The idea that Microsoft's business practices violate antitrust law is laughable.  Unfortunately, Judge Jackson's move to break up the world's most successful company is not."

Schatz predicted that Microsoft would successfully appeal the judge's ruling in the case and remain intact.  "The appeals court in the past has ruled against just about everything Judge Jackson has done in this case," he said.  "That court will recognize that the law has been misinterpreted by Judge Jackson and that Microsoft has been denied its Constitutional rights to due process.  Judge Jackson is demanding a swift and draconian dismantling of the world's largest corporation without any genuine opportunity for Microsoft to demonstrate the devastating economic consequences this will cause."

CAGW has long been critical of the government's prosecution of Microsoft.  In February 1999, the taxpayer watchdog group issued a report condemning the government for bungling high tech issues.  CAGW’s efforts to obtain documentation from the Justice Department on the cost of the case has been hampered by the department’s refusal to release more than the most superficial information, despite repeated Freedom of Information Act requests.  CAGW estimates that more than $30 million has been spent by the government to date on this case.

"Now the government will have to spend millions more in the obligatory appeals process to straighten out this mess," Schatz lamented.  "Taxpayers and consumers could have been saved a lot of money if this matter had been settled in fair marketplace competition.  Regardless of Judge Jackson's enmity, the free enterprise system will eventually decide Microsoft's fate."

CAGW is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.