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: techtonicbull who wrote (43880)	4/29/2000 3:30:00 PM
From: John F. Dowd	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Really there others besides me that think this whole thing is a very bad joke as well as a travesty of justice: boards.fool.com And from none other than Milton Friedman et al: For Immediate Release Friday, April 28, 2000 For Further Information, Contact: Pete Sepp (703) 683-5700 or (301) 585-7904 (Home) John Berthoud (703) 683-5700 or (703) 841-4791 (Home) Nation?s Largest Taxpayer Group Teams With Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman In Blasting Break-Up Plan For Microsoft (Alexandria, VA) ? The 300,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU), along with Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, today jointly denounced the just-unveiled plan from the Justice Department and state Attorneys General calling for a break-up of Microsoft as a "remedy" in the government?s protracted antitrust case against the computer firm. Following is a statement issued today by Dr. Friedman for National Taxpayers Union: "Recent events dealing with the Microsoft suit certainly support the view I expressed a year ago ? that Silicon Valley is suicidal in calling government in to mediate in the disputes among some of the big companies in the area and Microsoft. The money that has been spent on legal maneuvers would have been much more usefully spent on research in technology. The loss of the time spent in the courts by highly trained and skilled lawyers could certainly have been spent more fruitfully. Overall, the major effect has been a decline in the capital value of the computer industry, Microsoft in particular, but its competitors as well. They must rue the day that they set this incredible episode in operation." National Taxpayers Union President John Berthoud also blasted the break-up plan in his own statement. "Whether Microsoft is smashed into two pieces or two hundred pieces, the damage will be the same if the government is allowed to swing its break-up axe in the first place," Berthoud said. "Serious jurists and policymakers should reject this plan outright." Earlier this week, NTU?s research affiliate released a study that traced the destruction of billions in middle-class shareholder wealth from Microsoft and other high-technology firms due to government antitrust actions. "Not content with over $80 billion in losses they?ve inflicted on Microsoft, and billions more on NASDAQ companies, government lawyers want to bleed dry the 2,000 mutual funds and millions of Americans who hold shares in Microsoft, by slicing the firm in two," Berthoud concluded. "This reckless amputation is a far cry from the ?surgical intervention? that lead Justice Department attorney Joel Klein promised over a year ago." National Taxpayers Union is a grassroots organization founded in 1969 to work for lower taxes, less wasteful spending, and less regulation at all levels. Note: An audio version of Dr. Friedman?s statement, along with the NTU Foundation study, The Visible Hand: How Government Robbed Shareholders of $80 Billion, is available online at www.ntu.org -30- Dr. Friedman's Statement in Wav Format (1.3 MB) Read NTUF's Study: The Visible Hand Return to NTU/NTUF Home Page JFD