Microsoft on Thursday said that it will pay US$750 million to settle a private antitrust lawsuit that was filed last year by AOL Time Warner on behalf of its subsidiary, Netscape Communications.
The agreement also includes a new royalty-free, seven-year license of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player to AOL. The two companies said they agreed on “a variety of steps designed to ensure that their products work better with each other.” In addition, the software giant and AOL said they will “work to broaden consumer access to high-quality digital content, in such areas as online music services offering single downloads and/or monthly subscriptions [and] authorized Internet access to movies.”