Microsoft not ‘fully transparent' with sales data, say Chinese authorities
Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) internet browser and media player are being targeted in a Chinese antitrust probe, raising the prospect of China revisiting the software bundling issue at the heart of past antitrust complaints against the firm in the West.
Microsoft has not been fully transparent with information about its Windows and Office sales, but has expressed willingness to cooperate with ongoing investigations, Zhang Mao, the head of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), told reporters at a briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.
As Windows became the world's dominant operating system in the 1990s and 2000s, the issue of how Microsoft bundled its web browser and media player became the focus of respective antitrust cases brought by U.S. and European authorities. Microsoft settled in 2001 with the U.S. Department of Justice a long-running case centering around whether it could bundle its flagship Internet Explorer browser with Windows.
