Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ed who wrote (33908)	11/13/1999 4:12:00 PM
From: TomHighsmith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Out of EuropeSAP Europe head says Microsoft ruling misplaced PARIS, Nov 13 (Reuters) - A senior official of German software group SAP said on Saturday he believed the court ruling against Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) was misplaced, and that only a handful of Internet firms would survive in 10 years time. Shares in SAP were dented by the ruling last week by a U.S. federal court judge that software giant Microsoft had abused its dominant market position to squeeze competitors, such as in the market for Web browsers to peruse the Internet. Leo Apotheker, chairman of SAP Europe, said in an interview with French Radio Classique broadcast on Saturday, that ruling against Microsoft meant ruling against one of the few standards in the IT industry. ``Microsoft is a de facto standard. It's an advantage for the consumer to have a standard, even if it's a de facto one,' he said. He said it was extremely difficult for ordinary users to install functions such as browsers on their computers and without a standard, that task was practically impossible. ``So if you rule against Microsoft you are ruling against a standard, whether it's good or bad,' Apotheker reasoned. ``Our industry suffers particularly badly from a lack of standards. Everyone wants to impose their own (standard) on the rest and it's become highly competitive,' he added. The SAP Europe chairman defended Microsoft's argument that software which dominated the market today could become obsolete tomorrow. He said Bill Gates' company had woken up late to the potential of the Internet market, when rival Netscape already dominated the Web browser market, and had made a ``superhuman' effort to catch up. Apotheker predicted Internet stocks would follow the pattern of power and rail companies in the Twenties and Thirties. ``In the 1920s and 1930s there was a boom in the number of electricity companies and railway companies and in the end only a few of them survived. The same thing will happen with the Internet (companies),' he said. ``At the moment people are looking at all of them. And if you look at the market you'll see they're all overvalued. I think in 10 years, or even three -- it's hard to tell -- there will be a big purge.' biz.yahoo.com