Ellington

Microsoft Corp. has paid the state its final payment of $5 million in a anti-trust settlement the company and state reached in 2009, Attorney General Jim Hood announced yesterday.

"We collected $48.5 million for the state and $1 million for Mississippi consumers who redeemed their vouchers," Hood said. "Mississippi recovered more than any other state and it did not cost the taxpayers anything, because we made Microsoft pay our attorneys." 
 
The AG sued Microsoft in 2004 claiming the software developer had illegally overcharged Mississippi residents by creating a monopoly for their computer operating system software, including Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME, as well as other Microsoft products, such as Microsoft WORD, Excel and other applications.
 
The company settled with the state and gave Mississippi $40 million in 2009, which Hood idirected to state coffers to offset shortfalls in the state budget