Microsoft antitrust payout

Microsoft has agreed to pay US$23.3 million ($40.4 million) to Be Inc to settle an antitrust lawsuit that claimed the software giant negotiated deals with computer makers that cut out the smaller company's competing operating system.

Microsoft admits no wrongdoing under the settlement. The company did not disclose further details.

The lawsuit, filed in February 2002, is one of four private antitrust suits brought against Microsoft after a federal judge's ruling that Microsoft had acted as an illegal monopoly based on its dominance in desktop operating systems.