This is as close to a no lose proposition you will run into on Wall Street, long term that is. If the DOJ loses or simply fines them, so what. They have more cash than the net worth of 90% of the top 500 companies in the country. It would do nothing to their dominance of the desktop, nor their spreading into other businesses,so they would simply have a small bump in the road.
If they have to remove their explorer, again so what. They make Windows compatible systems,and the die is cast. That will not hurt them in the slightest. Once again a bump in the road.
If they are broken up, than all shareholders, including Bill, get shares in the Baby Bills. This is the real money maker. Since Windows is the set standard, they will continue to dominate. In fact, I would not doubt that some will move into servers, others PC's, and others telecommunications. Continued domination. All should do nicely. And since there are more of them, than the shareholders should benifit greatly.
Remember, it is estimated that the breakup of Standard Oil increased Rockefellers net worth by at least 3 times. If I was Gates, I would be saying "Please, hit me again." |
