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Jurors in $1 billion Microsoft antitrust suit fail to reach verdict

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 7:39PM EST
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Jurors in a Utah court failed to reach a verdict in an antitrust lawsuit filed against Microsoft more than six years ago. Software firm Novell filed a complaint against the Redmond-based personal computing giant in 2004, alleging that it reneged on a deal that cost Novell $1.2 billion. The Utah-based software company’s word processing software, WordPerfect, was supposed to be included with the Windows 95 operating system but Microsoft claims that it dumped plans to bundle the program when Novell failed to deliver a stable build in time. Novell argues that Microsoft pulled the plug on its WordPerfect plans to gain market share with its own competing software, Microsoft Word. Jurors were reportedly close to a verdict early on Friday but after continued deliberation, they informed the judge presiding over the case that they were deadlocked, the Associated Press reported on Saturday. U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz proceeded to declare a mistrial, and attorneys for Novell told reporters that they would seek to retry the case with a new jury.

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Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.