Reuters has reported that the European Union has fined Microsoft 497 million euros as the result of anti-trust litigation. They will also require Microsoft to provide a version of Windows to computer manufacturers that does not include Windows Media Player.

Little ‘ole me - not knowing much about Euros - went to xe.com to figure out what that is in Canadian funds. I’ll spare you the trip.

$479,000,000.00 Euro = $816,714,392.49 Canadian dollars.

That’s about 10,000,000 copies of XP Pro on the Canadian retail market.

That’s gonna hurt. Even for them. A few more suits like this, and we could put the “micro” back in Microsoft. Betcha they’re wishing they’d squeezed Mike Rowe a little harder now.