How high will Microsoft fly? Message Board

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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly?

MSFT 492.01

+1.3%

Nov 28 9:30 AM EST

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To: t2 who wrote (23491)	6/1/1999 3:33:00 PM
From: RTev	Read Replies (2) of 74651

I guess they are continuing the negotiations as the trial goes on. Could it be that they are very close to settlement? That is how I would read into any meetings taking place while the trial is restarting. I doubt there are many civil suits where settlement isn't being considered at some level during all stages of the trial. I also suspect that the judge issued a tongue-lashing to both sides for brining this thing back into his courtroom. (Since that's something judges do almost as a matter of course.) The recent articles about the case indicate that Microsoft has reason to settle now since the plaintiffs have apparently indicated that they will consider divestiture only if settlement fails. But what I wonder about is whether a settlement that does not involve structural changes would be good for Microsoft in the long run. I figure the worst course they could follow is the one they have apparently decided to wander down: drag the case out until the market makes it clear that the company is losing at its own game. But settlement under the terms leaked last week doesn't seem much better. Settlement (under those terms) gives them the option of continuing with a business that has the same general form that it has had in the past, but with far more restrictions. They'd have to recognize the rules of monopoly and act in the more chastened fashion required of a business that is a monopoly. It would require a significant shift in corporate culture at Microsoft. I'm not at all sure they're capable of handling that shift without losing much of their energy. I continue to think that Microsoft's best hope would come from the course they seem least likely to take: Accepting a radical structural change in the company that would allow each part to continue as the kind of aggressive businesses that the whole has been in the past, but with a more competitive field.

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