"Under NO circumstances lose against Linux," says a Microsoft internal memo.
Investigations are already starting to see if Microsoft violated anti-trust laws... under European law, companies that hold a dominant market position are barred from offering discounts that are intended to block competitors from the market.
The article seems to clearly indicate that Microsoft knew they were violating European law in this case. Internal Microsoft documents show that they were warned by legal experts not to specifically target particular competitors or offer special deals only to certain customers. These documents even hint at how Microsoft would try to legally defend themselves should they be challenged -- they don't deny that their actions would violate European law if they were a dominant company in the marketplace, they simply deny their dominance.
Somehow, I don't think they're going to win that legal argument...