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: alydar who wrote (59867)	7/15/2001 2:39:21 PM
From: Bill Fischofer	Respond to of 74651

Re: IBM Antitrust effects Actually, the opposite is true. At the time of the IBM antitrust action (1969-1983), the computer industry was widely categorized as IBM and the BUNCH. The BUNCH were Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data, and Honeywell and it was these companies that were being "harmed" by IBM's control of the computer industry. Where are they now? Litigation didn't spur innovation at these companies any more than it does today among MSFT's competitors. In many ways it was because the BUNCH continued to hold out hope that IBM would be broken up and they could then divide the lucrative mainframe spoils that they ignored other profitable opportunities which they could have pursued. While the BUNCH continued to focus on the mainframe market other companies like DEC did innovate and built the minicomputer market into a huge success. The fact that DEC itself later fell victim to the same blindness that afflicted IBM in missing the PC transition does not diminish the scope of its earlier success or the profits that its shareholders for many years enjoyed. The fundamental problem with the MSFT-bashing that exists here and elsewhere is that it purports to be based on the mistaken notion that there is an "ought" to markets when in fact it is simply the politics of envy. In its day IBM enjoyed far greater invective from its critics and I'm sure twenty years from now whoever is the top dog then will garner similar scorn. That's just human nature, but it is often a poor guide to profitable investing, which, after all, is the larger purpose of SI.