I don't want to dissect this whole post, it's late and I've written way to much as usual. Let's just take
4. It looks like that you don't believe that Microsoft has a bit of integrity to compete fairly against other companies. Let's wait and see if DOJ can prove this point.
That is, Microsoft is presumed to have a bit of integrity unless DOJ can turn the wimpy consent decree, that nobody was ever impressed with except Anne Bingaman, into something meaningful. I'd say, offhand, that DOJ has taken things a lot farther than anyone would have ever expected, I wouldn't put much stock in the outcome of this little caper. It's the Sherman Act in the background you got to watch for. To repeat a favorite little snippet:
Once it determines that a new company is a threat, Microsoft can deploy its integration strategy with a vengeance. In September 1995, Paul Maritz, the executive in charge of Microsoft's operating-system business, met with executives of Intel Corp., the leading microchip maker. It was a month after Netscape had sold shares to the public and the Internet start-up was suddenly a hot company.
When the discussion turned to Netscape, one Intel executive, who asked not to be identified, recalled Maritz saying: "We are going to cut off their air supply. Everything they're selling, we're going to give away for free." (from nytimes.com
This sounds pretty much to me like leveraging the OS monopoly into an internet monopoly, and the Sherman Act speaks to that pretty directly. The current little legal tiff can't quite use the direct route. Don't think that means that Microsoft is home free if it gets off.
Up till the internet war, Microsoft was famous for giving away software. Not. Bill's line before it turned into a war was "What do you think we are, communists?" when the subject came up. Now, we are all communists, or at least Bill is, by his own criteria and Bob Metcalfe's. Maybe Bill is a commie with a lot of integrity, as opposed to the rest of us leftist/liberal/pejorative/ad hominem of your choice members of the ilk. If you find a bit of integrity in "cutting off Netscape's air supply by giving away everything they sell", let me know. Or better, maybe you can join the Reggie/Sal/Ballmer ethical roundtable, where the conundrum "It's unethical to be ethical in business" rules.
Cheers, Dan. |
