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

To: Charles Tutt who wrote (56153)	2/23/2001 4:33:23 PM
From: DiViT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

IBM, Microsoft Settle E-Commerce Standards Dispute By Siobhan Kennedy NEW YORK (Reuters) - A group backed by International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news), the world's largest computer hardware company, agreed this week to adopt an electronic-commerce standard being developed by software giant Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news), settling a high-stakes dispute that has been rumbling for more than a year. By bringing the incompatible standards together, the two sides are seeking to provide companies with a common format for doing business over the Internet, a market expected to explode in the next few years. AMR Research in Boston predicted the market for business-to-business transactions will skyrocket to $5.7 trillion by 2004 from $581 million in 2001 as more and more companies use the Web to buy products and services. ``If you don't have a standard way of communicating, then people will create lots of different ways of doing it,'' Bob Sutor, IBM's director of e-business standards strategy, told Reuters on Thursday. ``And that will create big interoperability problems.'' That is exactly what has happened so far. With IBM pushing one standard and Microsoft another, the result has been a sometimes bitter war of words between the two. IBM has dismissed the rival effort as lightweight and too Microsoft-centric, and Microsoft has criticized the IBM group for taking too long to get its standard out the door. IBM started working on the standard in 1999, among a group of about 130 technology companies, including BEA Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:BEAS - news), a leading provider of software used to manage Web businesses, and Sun Microsystems Inc. (NasdaqNM:SUNW - news), the No. 1 provider of UNIX servers. The group, called Oasis, has been working under the auspices of the United Nations (news - web sites). Oasis' standard, called ebXML (for electronic business XML), is a series of specifications that define how businesses should communicate with each other in buying and selling goods over the Internet. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a popular Web standard that businesses use to exchange information with each other online. But as is always the case with standards, not everyone applauded Oasis' efforts. Later in 1999, Microsoft started working on SOAP, or Simple Object Access Protocol, a standard that competed with ebXML in some key areas. The world's largest software company handed over its specifications to the World Wide Web Consortium for ratification last May. ``If you think of the specifications like an envelope that contains a letter,'' IBM's Sutor said, ``Microsoft basically designed a different envelope to the one we designed.'' John Montgomery, lead product manager for Microsoft's .Net framework, said Oasis' decision to adopt SOAP is a clear validation of the approach both Microsoft and the World Wide Web Consortium has taken with XML standardization. ``Microsoft has consistently said that the (consortium) is where XML standardization should occur.'' he added. The biggest problem with ebXML, Montgomery said, was that the Oasis group was trying to do too many things at once, and consequently not getting anything finished in time. ``ebXML tried to solve the whole ball of wax in one go,'' he said, ``and the result has been that's its taken them far longer to produce any specifications.'' Sutor, who is also vice chairman of the ebXML group, said the Oasis members will continue to develop the ebXML standard, an overarching effort that includes a lot more work than the small part that overlapped with Microsoft's SOAP. The first version of ebXML was set for release in May, he said, the same time as the World Wide Web Consortium is due to ratify SOAP. dailynews.yahoo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In related news, someone suggested Sun's Board of directors wash McNealy's mouth out with SOAP, next time he speaks of growth rates.... <g>

To: Charles Tutt who wrote (56153)	2/23/2001 6:25:33 PM
From: Thunder	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Do you think everybody who is critical of Microsoft is biased? That's a lot of people! I never said that. But I will say that Lawyers, Politicians, Groups and Competitors are people -- and that's a lot of people alright. There's certainly at least one thing in common with them and, sometimes it's just plain obvious just what they're after and why they're after it. IMHO, Microsoft had better have a plan for what to do if the findings of fact and most of the conclusions of law are upheld. Oh I'm sure of that Charles. They didn't become Microsoft without great planning and execution on all fronts. The way I speculate the end-game is (short of a mistrial or a friendly settlement -- the latter being highly probable), it not being a matter of if Microsoft wins in the end but how badly do both sides lose; what's the price that will have been paid. It will probably come at a high price in the end though, as it already has via confidence among many shareholders (myself not being one of them), and the general overall market as well. Not to mention, other every day tax paying citizens. As you may have noticed my view has changed from a win or lose POV, to now the lose-lose POV. I was wrong and continue to learn as I go along. Has it been fun so far for myself? No. And that's Microsoft's fault. Has it been fun for Lawyers, Politicians, Groups and Competitors so far? Sure seems that way. And that's Microsoft's fault. Should Microsoft have settled awhile ago during the Posner mediated talks? From what I've read they were prepared and willing along with the DoJ but, the AGs weren't. And of course(!) that's Microsoft's fault too.... Should've Microsoft integrated IE into Windows? Yes, absolutely. A) Do consumers benefit from this? Yes, absolutely. B) Do competitors benefit from this? In a way absolutely yes, in others absolutely not. C) Did/do Lawyers, Politicians, Groups and Competitors benefit and become seemingly more powerful as a result, while this was/is in dispute? Stop smiling. D) Was it a blatant move for protecting an alleged monopoly or, for other reasons such as some measurable consumer benefit? Story at eleven. ..And the Beat goes on and on and on..... (in a somewhat digressional way <g>). My thinking is that the Justices, such as Ginsburg (the Judge that served in Reagan's DoJ for four years) on the Appellate Court, are going to have a far different look on the matter then TPJ. In fact, my thinking is also of such that when it's all said and done in a _worst_case_ scenario, with views contrasting so brightly from the lower Court; there will be no substantive plan needed at all for a wound(s) in need of a Band-Aid, and a Check. The latter being one of the primary reasons this was pursued initially. Along with some code but; can't touch that. Thunder