Blogs

Here's an interesting twist on today's antitrust filing by Opera Software against Microsoft: Although this is Opera's first antitrust challenge to Microsoft, the Norwegian company's board chairman, Bill Raduchel, has experience in such matters. He was Sun Microsystems' chief strategy officer when it was embroiled in its own antitrust battles with Microsoft.

In the 1999 book, "High Noon," about Sun Microsystems, Raduchel was quoted likening Bill Gates and Microsoft to John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. Both had the sense that "they have a God-given right to this power and it's for the good of the world," the book quotes Raduchel as saying, calling it important for Sun to stand up against that.

Sun's 1998 complaint against Microsoft in Europe started the process that led to the landmark March 2004 antitrust ruling against the company by the European Commission. Sun settled with Microsoft in April 2004. Raduchel had left Sun in 1999, according to the news release last year announcing his appointment to the Opera board.

I've asked an Opera spokesman what role Raduchel had in the filing of today's complaint, and I'll update this post depending on the response.