Intra-day trading on Microsoft lifted the stock price by 14 cents, but concerns raised by the European Commission over the forthcoming Vista operating system could prove troublesome.
In October 2005, the information security firm Symantec (NASD:SYMC) complained to European regulators about Microsoft’s (NASD:MSFT) planned bundling of antivirus and anti-spyware software with Vista. Recently, EU antitrust regulators expressed their concerns about Microsoft potentially limiting consumer choices on software.
The company’s CEO Steve Ballmer said in Munich in early October 2005 that Microsoft Client Security represented what business customers wanted – a single solution to security issues.
Now, Microsoft has said it would not bundle antivirus software in Vista. Instead, it will only make its anti-spyware software, Windows Defender, part of the release. Symantec had been concerned that bundled antivirus software would negatively impact its business, the Wall Street Journal said.
In other tech news, Linux distributor Red Hat (NASD:RHAT) dropped 64 cents in intraday trading despite seeing its fiscal fourth quarter’s total revenue leap 37 percent year-over-year to $78.7 million. Red Hat’s fiscal year ended with total revenues of $278.3 million, of which $230.4 million came from subscription revenue.
Apple (NASD:AAPL) announced its response to concerns over the volume settings for its popular iPod media players. A software update permits users to set a maximum volume setting on the device.
“With the increased attention in this area, we want to offer customers an easy to use option to set their own personal volume limit,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
