Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have Neukom talking about conduct remedies as if we were still back in 1996-97 talking about the Consent Decree.
microsoft.com
Oops! "Due to technical problems," the juiciest part of the press conference transcript "has been removed."
To summarize what *was* there: Neukom basically told Sherlund, Readerman and the other analysts listening on the phone that, in Microsoft's view, the DOJ's case is a "monopoly maintenance case" for which structural remedies are inappropriate.
As far as I know, this is the only official word Microsoft has had to say on the issue of remedies, other than the usual one-liners about not wanting to speculate about remedies.
With the DOJ doves coming around to the point of view of the state attorney general hawks, talk of a breakup definitely has "big mo" on its side and is becoming more and more the conventional wisdom.
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict the following:
After all is said and done, the DOJ will, in fact, ask the judge to break up Microsoft. And, if the DOJ asks for it, this judge, who is pissed off at Microsoft and has the cohones to do it, will break the company up.
I'm also going to go out on a limb and state the following about the DOJ's case as proven and the facts as laid out in the Judge's findings: Neukom is right.
What can I say -- I hate espousing the conventional wisdom |
