Microsoft Files What Could Be Final Response

Microsoft Corp. filed a fresh response to the Justice Department’s breakup plan a day earlier than expected, paving the way for a federal judge to make a final ruling in the protracted antitrust case.

The company, disdainful of the department’s response to its earlier concerns, asked U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to include previously suggested language that would give a broken-up Microsoft more freedom to enter into agreements with software developers and computer makers.

“Instead of agreeing to correct the many defects in the revised proposed final judgment, and thereby minimize the damage that its entry would inflict on a wide range of participants in the computer industry, the government has agreed to only a few cosmetic changes,” Microsoft’s attorneys wrote.

Microsoft shares rose $2.75 to $69.625 in Nasdaq trading Tuesday.

Microsoft also said the Justice Department was “confirming that certain provisions are more extreme than they might appear at first blush” and “blithely ignoring substantial problems Microsoft identified regarding the feasibility of complying with many of the provisions as drafted.”

The company was due to file the brief, expected to be the last in the case, today. But Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said the “cosmetic” filing by the government made it easier to reply quickly.

Jackson had been set to rule on the case--including whether to split the company into two parts --last week, but the department asked for more time so it could address issues raised by the company.

In Monday’s court filing, the department agreed to grammatical and semantic changes, but refused to concede to the company on major points.