Having extended their negotiations until the last possible moment, IBM and Microsoft this morning jointly announced the termination of their long-running antitrust dispute in US federal courts. As part of the terms of their settlement, Microsoft agreed to pay IBM $775 million in cash, plus extend IBM $75 million in credit toward future purchases of Microsoft software.

The settlement brings to an end IBM's involvement in US federal action against Microsoft that begun in the spring of 1990, when ironically, the Federal Trade Commission began investigating whether IBM and Microsoft were illegally colluding in the development of future operating systems for the IBM PC, disallowing competitors.