Comments on: daily EU fine for MS? http://www.3till7.net/2005/12/22/daily-eu-fine-for-ms/ Programming, espresso, and grumbling. Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:48:24 +0000 hourly 1 By: grouch http://www.3till7.net/2005/12/22/daily-eu-fine-for-ms/comment-page-1/#comment-1515 grouch Thu, 22 Dec 2005 17:54:58 +0000 http://www.3till7.net/2005/12/22/daily-eu-fine-for-ms/#comment-1515 Don't get too excited. Taking the U.S. definition of "billion" and MS's cash reserve of $65 billion (last time I read about it): echo "scale=2; 65000/2.4" | bc 27083.33 (days) Let's imagine MS has that cash in some very modest bank account, drawing a simple 2% per year, and let's ignore any growth of the original $65 billion. Interest will be $1300 million per year, or $3.5 million per day. The penalty looks a bit puny, now, doesn't it? Having a global, lucrative monopoly that has been maintained by illegal means for many years without any significant impedance from any government gives one a comfortable cushion against further slaps on the wrist by mere governments. Don’t get too excited. Taking the U.S. definition of “billion” and MS’s cash reserve of $65 billion (last time I read about it):

echo “scale=2; 65000/2.4″ | bc
27083.33 (days)

Let’s imagine MS has that cash in some very modest bank account, drawing a simple 2% per year, and let’s ignore any growth of the original $65 billion. Interest will be $1300 million per year, or $3.5 million per day.

The penalty looks a bit puny, now, doesn’t it? Having a global, lucrative monopoly that has been maintained by illegal means for many years without any significant impedance from any government gives one a comfortable cushion against further slaps on the wrist by mere governments.

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