To: David Montgomery who wrote (6855 ) 7/30/1999 10:19:00 AM From: Jonathan Fine Respond to
Perhaps. While I think shareholder value for both Microsoft and Citrix would be largely protected especially in the short to mid-term (now to 2 or three years out). The longer term consequences for us all seem much murkier. The great gift that Microsoft has given us all is a standard foundation, albeit a mediocre and somewhat expensive one, on which to build. If Microsoft breaks up, especially if they break them up into several companies, each with the right to the OS then we could very well return to the proprietary and very expensive Babel that existed before. Microsoft shareholders could make out like bandits but I don't think the ATT experience necessarily tells us that much about what might happen with a MSFT breakup, especially in terms of the eventual effects on the technology industry. Again, for all their obvious faults without an agressive MSFT we'd all still be paying $50 for the latest version of our browser. And that's just one example.
