Microsoft Fined for Price Fixing Office Suite

[tuannguyen]

Microsoft has been slapped with a fine of approximately $11.8 million for price fixing its popular Office Home and Student 2007 suite at a recent retail promotion.

Microsoft Fined for Price Fixing Office Suite : Read more

 

[judeh101]

M$ deserves it!

 

[eagles453809]

so...who cares. office isnt going to be sold for 20 bucks. microsoft sells it to the retail outlet. the retail outlet sells it for a little more to make a profit. just because microsoft is the big dog on the block doesnt mean they should be under such scrutiny. christ look at what companies like adobe sell their products for. why aren't they being fined for such insane prices?

 

[Regected]

So M$ is being fined for forcing the price LOW? Wow, that is really looking out for consumer interests. Next they will go after Open Office for being free.

 

[judeh101]

I mean, come on, this isn't fair to the people that had to pay 100 bucks for office.
paying 20 bucks is a huge rip off for the people that had to pay full price. So m$ deserves it.

 

[falchard]

OMGs, Microsoft sold software at an affordable price thats actually the common price of said software by its competition. That is detestable and should be fined. Microsofts product is simply too good for its competition at that price with the exception of Open Office.

 

[DXRick]

Can't you guys just provide links to DailyTech.com (like Anandtech does). This is last week's news.

 

[formin]

lol only 12M
bill carries more money around in his wallet

 

[squatchman]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Microsoft-office-2007-price-fixing,7508.html


Seriously... Is there any oversight at all anymore with Best of Media? Get Kevin and Marcus to write stories about this next week so you guys can round out your portfolios.

 

[joex444]

Hey guys... even though this is last week's news, it seems that many commenters have little idea of WHY they were being sued. I'll admit that this particular writeup is poorly worded, and the ones last week were more insightful.

But... MS wasn't sued for having expensive software. They were sued for telling the retailer what to sell Office for.

In an open market, MS sells Office to the retailer. They can have an MSRP (*Suggested* retail price), from which the retailer can sell it for more or less. If they choose less, then it appears to be "On sale" which makes people think they're getting a bargain (similar to how Kohl's has a 60% off everything sale all the time).

What MS did here is they agreed on the actual retail price. What the conversation probably went like was "Your (retailers) are going to sell this for $XXX, or else you won't sell it at all." With MS, you take it or leave it. And that's what they're in trouble for, breaking the meaning of an open market.

Notice that when you see the same product at different stores / estores for different prices. That's an open market, you can shop around. With MS, it appears that every retailer sells it for the same price. Here we have MS's product being sold at the same price at all the stores. That's not a coincidence.

 

[jsloan]

what about apple, surely they fit in the price fixing category. just check out their prices form store to store, you're lucky to get $50 lower than list. Even discontinued products remain priced at list or close to list.

 

[hellwig]

[citation][nom]jsloan[/nom]what about apple, surely they fit in the price fixing category. just check out their prices form store to store, you're lucky to get $50 lower than list. Even discontinued products remain priced at list or close to list.[/citation]
I also wonder how Apple gets away with any of their business practices. Apple is guilty of everything Microsoft keeps getting punished for, but they never get in trouble for it.

If you could only buy Apple at Apple stores or on their website, then it wouldn't matter, but the fact that Wal-Mart sells the iPhone for a whopping $2 less than AT&T tells me something is wrong. Either these companies don't make any profit for selling Apple products (in which case, why do it?), or Apple is forcing the price through agreements, which is blatant price fixing and illegal.

 

[truehighroller]

Hey now, I just received Office 2007 Ultimate for $59.95 from here.


http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx


Now that is a steal right there!! Everything is legit to. I had no issues installing it last night on my PC. I had no issues activating or downloading it. The email went right through to my school email like it had already been white listed and everything. Based on this deal, yes they are fixing prices big time.

 

[jsloan]

[citation][nom]hellwig[/nom]I also wonder how Apple gets away with any of their business practices. Apple is guilty of everything Microsoft keeps getting punished for, but they never get in trouble for it.If you could only buy Apple at Apple stores or on their website, then it wouldn't matter, but the fact that Wal-Mart sells the iPhone for a whopping $2 less than AT&T tells me something is wrong. Either these companies don't make any profit for selling Apple products (in which case, why do it?), or Apple is forcing the price through agreements, which is blatant price fixing and illegal.[/citation]


i used to work in a store that used to sell apple computers and the reason the pricing is the way it is is because apple does not leave much margin for discounting and also because if you do then you will find yourself out in the cold.

 

[jsloan]

[citation][nom]truehighroller[/nom]Hey now, I just received Office 2007 Ultimate for $59.95 from here.http://www.microsoft.com/student/d [...] fault.aspxNow that is a steal right there!! Everything is legit to. I had no issues installing it last night on my PC. I had no issues activating or downloading it. The email went right through to my school email like it had already been white listed and everything. Based on this deal, yes they are fixing prices big time.[/citation]

microsoft also have student program where they can get developer tools, including windows server 2008, visual studio 2008 professional, sql server 2008, game studios, robot studio, and more all for free.

here is the link:

https://www.dreamspark.com/

it's a microsoft site.

 

[gamerk316]

Thats right jsloan, but notice they don't offer office...

A comp-Sci student can get any M$ software for free, except Office. Its not Windows they make their $$ on, its OFFICE.

 

[jsloan]

hey just trying to help out, anyways i never said you get office for free, $60 is not that bad... see this posting

[citation][nom]truehighroller[/nom]Hey now, I just received Office 2007 Ultimate for $59.95 from here.http://www.microsoft.com/student/d [...] fault.aspxNow that is a steal right there!! Everything is legit to. I had no issues installing it last night on my PC. I had no issues activating or downloading it. The email went right through to my school email like it had already been white listed and everything. Based on this deal, yes they are fixing prices big time.[/citation]

 

[Neog2]

Or you can just go to www.technet.com and just pay the subscription
fee of $250 a year and you have access to pretty much everything
Microsoft makes and private beta's as well. Oh yeah I was definitely in on the private halo 3 beta's.

They have two tiers of subscriptions $350 for first year $250 after wards
for just downloads.

$599 for first year $449 after wards for downloads with dvd shipments.

 

[E7130]

Wonder why Walmart doesn't get sued for telling manufacturers what they have to sell it for...

 

[Guest]

Its not illegal to sell something to make a profit. It is illegal to price fix products by way of shady dealings with resellers which Microsoft has already been in trouble for. I'm not suprised by all of the "Wah wah Apple does this and that" comments but Apple is pretty fair and follows the law in its business deals.

 

[rooket]

The student edition is lame, it has a useless program one note in place of outlook.