We are confident that the court will find we are in compliance with the consent decree.

The matter before the court was whether Microsoft could be held in contempt for violating a consent decree entered in 1995. The court denied the Justice Department's petition for contempt; the case should have ended there. But on its own initiative, the court proceeded to treat the matter as a tying case and, without giving Microsoft notice or an opportunity to defend itself, issued a preliminary injunction.

The appeals court may say it is only talking about Windows 95 in its interpretation of the consent decree, ... It does have an influence. The Court of Appeals will inevitably say something about the appropriateness of Microsoft's behavior.

We don't know how they are going to measure [compliance with the decree] and what they will use as a benchmark for profiling.

We continue to be confident about our legal position. We think the law is very much on our side in all the major issues of this case.

We are hopeful that we will be able to resolve this matter through a negotiated consent decree rather than through costly and protracted litigation ... (but) we are prepared to file a complaint if the matter is not resolved expeditiously.