Final Microsoft antitrust overseer named

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday nominated a Silicon Valley engineer and entrepreneur to a technical committee that will oversee Microsoft's compliance with its antitrust settlement.

If approved by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, Edward Stritter would become the final member of the three-person committee that was created last year as part of the deal that ended the government's courtroom pursuit of Microsoft. A representative for the software titan said the company did not object to Stritter's appointment to the panel.

Stritter's resume describes a career that began in 1968 as a programmer at Bell Labs and led him to Motorola, where he became the chief architect of the legendary 68000 microprocessor used in the original Macintosh.

Stritter became a founder of MIPS Computer of Sunnyvale, Calif.--which developed the first RISC processor and merged with Silicon Graphics in 1992--and went on to be the director of business development for a Cisco Systems wireless unit. Since 2000, he has been an angel investor in early stage start-ups.

The Justice Department and the state attorneys general who signed the settlement said they performed a "thorough background investigation" before recommending Stritter. "Mr. Stritter is an expert in software design and programming and does not have a conflict of interest that could prevent him from performing his duties under the final judgment in a fair and unbiased manner," the Justice Department said in a court filing.

The other two committee members are Harry Saal and Franklin Fite Jr., who decided on Stritter as the final member of the oversight committee Jan. 12.

Two states, Massachusetts and West Virginia, did not agree to the consent decree and have appealed.