In his decision, Mr. Lewnes said SCE's shareholders would benefit while "the market loses an efficient and vigorous competitor."

Microsoft said the documents had been chosen to embarrass it but instead depicted a vigorous competitor striving to improve its products.

In determining which side to believe, he will inevitably be guided by his own judgment of whether Microsoft is a vigorous competitor or predatory monopolist.

Meanwhile, investors rewarded a number of Microsoft's most vigorous competitors and critics.

In the last four years, New York has relinquished its longtime pre-eminence in biomedical research to vigorous competitors in California, Massachusetts and elsewhere.

Now we have a vigorous competitor and one we know.

Mr. Baine said both companies are likely to make DirecTV into a much more vigorous competitor for cable customers.

Nasdaq, the traditional home of technology companies, has for years been a vigorous competitor of the Big Board.

But the study concluded that the survivors would be vigorous competitors, their routes extending across the nation and their revenues bolstered by sharp gains in international air traffic.

In the areas where our trade has overlapped, we have been vigorous competitors.