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

To: Alan Buckley who wrote (4111)	11/21/1997 5:26:00 PM
From: X-Ray Man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

But this is where you argument falls down. Indeed, there have been clones of MSFT products, even better in quality, throughout the growth of MSFT. MSFT beats these products in the marketplace by either (1) buying them out or (2) controlling major distribution channels with OEM bundling agreements. This is the secret of MSFT success. Business practices are as important or more important than technology in this game, and if other vendors feel MSFT is not executing fair business practice, they obviously aren't gonna be able to compete by just making a better product. Example: AAPL did develop MacOS for Intel some years ago. But when they went to the major OEM vendors about bundle licenses, they were told that MSFT restriction on requiring license for all machines sold meant they would not be able to pay AAPL for installed MacOS on any machines unless it was free. AAPL, based on this info, decided to can the product, because they saw know way to compete in that business environment. Example: Digital Research DOS. Clearly superior product, but they could not get OEM bundle deals for the same reason. The reason MSFT is where it is today is because it pulled of a very restrictive OEM bundling deal with clone vendors some years ago. This type of agreement is still the bone of contention with DOJ. Hey, argue that this is a legitimate way to do business if you like, but at least have the intellectual honesty not to ignore the importance of this kind of behavior in MSFT success.

To: Alan Buckley who wrote (4111)	11/21/1997 6:17:00 PM
From: nnillionaire	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Alan, I want no part of the ongoing "keyboard lawyers" debte about the DOJ / MSFT litigation, but I do want to correct your assertion that airports are owned and regulated by the government. Some airports are owned by municipal and city governments, backed by bondholders. Most airports are owned by private entities. Regulation is by the FAA, a federal agency, and the federal government only owns military airports. Your analogy doesn't hold water. Good Investing