From: adam flinton 

Good news for Ellen K

"Microsoft Corp. is starting to react more aggressively to the Linux
and open-source threat, last week slashing the price of its SQL Server 2000
Developer Edition by $450, to $49."

I think that is called a "steep discount" in Retail-speak. Not
often a product drops to just about 1/10th of it's "normal"
PRICE.

Adam

Joe Barr wrote:
> http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1121581,00.asp
>
> June 9, 2003
> Microsoft Feels the Linux Heat
> By Peter Galli
>
> Microsoft Corp. is starting to react more aggressively to the Linux and
> open-source threat, last week slashing the price of its SQL Server 2000
> Developer Edition by $450, to $49.
>
> ADVERTISEMENT
>
> The second major price cut in as many weeks followed the Redmond, Wash.,
> company's decision to reduce the retail price of Office XP by 15 percent.
>
> For the first time, Microsoft officials are admitting that Linux is
> affecting the way the company prices products. Paul Flessner, senior vice
> president of the Server Platform Division, told eWEEK at the Tech Ed
> conference here last week that Linux factored into Microsoft's decision to
> cut the price of its SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition, effective Aug. 1.
>
> "Microsoft is about making technology available to all audiences and as
> ubiquitously as it can," Flessner said. "Giving developers
great access to
> our technology helps further that mission, so that was the call around the
> developer edition." (For more from Flessner, see Face to Face, Page 26.)
>
> Flessner said Linux was not the only reason for the price drop, but he
> said he would be "remiss if I said that wasn't one of the factors. ... It
> was. Linux has certainly brought these things to our attention."
>
>

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