Ballmer in Brussels

The Financial Times reports that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has flown to Brussels for last-minute talks with EU antitrust officials, aimed at settling the case against the company before an expected ruling next week. See also this Associated Press report. Bloomberg News is reporting separately that Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel, also is participating in the talks, which have ended for the day and are expected to resume tomorrow. See this story from today's paper for more background.

It's shaping up to be a busy few days for the Microsoft chief executive. At last check this morning, Ballmer was still scheduled to speak Wednesday at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas.

Update, 6 p.m.: It looks like Ballmer will be staying in Brussels for a while longer. The company said this afternoon that Ballmer would not be speaking Wednesday at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas, as had been planned, due to "an unforeseen schedule change."

The message from Windows executive Bob Muglia didn't specify the reason for the change, and Microsoft didn't officially acknowledge that Ballmer is in Brussels, but the development suggests that the EU negotiations are continuing in earnest. A Microsoft corporate vice president, Kirill Tatarinov, will cover the material Ballmer had been expected to present at the conference.