Software giants Microsoft and Adobe are apparently headed toward the court following a dispute over the inclusion of Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) in Microsoft's Office 2007. This feature allows Word, Excel and PowerPoint to be saved in the ubiquitous format through Office 2007.
This technology also allows for creating and distributing documents digitally while retaining the original format, design and pictures. Adobe insists on this technology being removed and offered separately for a fee. However, while Microsoft has agreed on the former condition, it has refused to charge for it.
The reason behind Adobe's actions is probably the competitive threat it faces with Microsoft including for free in its Office 2007 those features which other competitors offered separately for a fee. Another issue of concern for Adobe that the PDF was to be included in Office around the same time that Microsoft will be releasing its own competitive technology.
Microsoft has attracted the attention of authorities for attempting to misuse its monopoly and to maintain it by unfairly providing in its software, features that were previously offered separately. It thus largely restricts the business of Adobe's Acrobat. Acrobat is used in conjunction with PDF documents to read or write them. Adobe recently provided free specifications for creating applications using PDF – thereby making the standard more popular. Microsoft has thus increased competition and not just against the usual contenders like Apple or Google but against a venerable business partner like Adobe.
Talks have been going on back and forth between the two companies for over four months now and efforts were made to avoid a lawsuit. Although the talks haven't resulted in any progress, representatives of Adobe refused to comment on whether the company was filing a case against Microsoft.
In any case, this development doesn't appear to have affected the popularity and worth of either company. On Friday, shares of Adobe were up 1% to close at $28.99 while Microsoft's stock was up by 5 cents to close at $22.87
