US$10 million in bonus money for Microsoft critic

Ed Black, the outspoken trade association president who excoriated Microsoft for years, is receiving nearly US$10 million from a Microsoft antitrust settlement that aims to eliminate further criticism of Microsoft.

Ed Black, the outspoken trade association president who excoriated Microsoft for years, is receiving nearly US$10 million from a Microsoft antitrust settlement that aims to eliminate further criticism of Microsoft.

In a report from Brussels, the Financial Times said it had seen documents detailing how US$9.75 million of a Microsoft US$19.75 million settlement payment was earmarked for Black.

He has been the president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a Washington-based group that initially warred with IBM during that firm's dominant days before it directed its attention to Microsoft.

After Microsoft settled with the CCIA earlier this month, press reports stated that Black, who had been paid US$159,000 a year, had inked a new contract for US$2 million over five years.

While the CCIA has declined comment on Black's pay, Microsoft said it had no "visibility" as to where the US$19.75 million paid to the CCIA would go. At the time of its settlement with the CCIA, Microsoft said in a joint statement with the CCIA that both organisations would work together on "important and pressing technology issues facing the high-tech industry."

The joint statement continued: "The company will compensate CCIA for certain legal-related expenditures it has incurred, in some cases over the past decade, and provide substantial institutional support for new and important policy undertakings on which CCIA will take a leadership role."

At the time, Black said: "While there may be times when we and Microsoft will not agree on every issue, we are looking forward to developing a stronger relationship."

The CCIA has long advocated aggressive stances against Microsoft. Its board includes long-time Microsoft adversaries Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, Intuit, Fujitsu, and the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL).

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