Rumor: EU to nix Microsoft DRM deal
InternetNews | at | by Mike
Microsoft and Time Warner may think their control of DRM technology vendor ContentGuard is a done deal, but the EU may try to block a final acquisition. Reuters reported on Friday that unnamed sources said the European Commission on Competition, the entity charged with regulating antitrust matters, would say no to the buy. Microsoft and Time Warner all but own the company already. Four-year-old ContentGuard was a spin-off company set up to commercialize DRM technology developed at Xerox's PARC research center. Microsoft became a strategic investor, along with Xerox, when the company launched in 2000.