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

To: Zoltan! who wrote (4312)	12/16/1997 1:16:00 PM
From: Flair	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Duncan, Thanks. It's an interesting article. search.washingtonpost.com ......................................... Microsoft's contention is that consumers benefit from wide-open markets, where competitors slug it out without the state's interference. And in this new age, technology moves so quickly that no firm can establish monopoly power for long -- and certainly can't use it to push up prices. Too bad Microsoft didn't fight harder for those principles -- and didn't buy a little wealth protection. Instead, two years ago, it signed a consent decree, pledging not to force computer makers that use its operating system to use any other product. The government says it violated that decree, but Microsoft contends that its browser is "integrated" and so exempt. Jackson's ruling is only temporary, and big computer makers, including IBM and Compaq say they'll keep shipping machines with the browser anyway. (Hardly a surprise -- it's free!) Jackson's decision, which Microsoft is appealing, bodes ill for the company. Instead of simply ruling on the consent decree, the judge is turning this into another massive antitrust case. What's worse is that Joel Klein, the politically adept assistant attorney general, is now encouraged to keep dogging Microsoft's steps. "The Justice Department is not going to let Microsoft leverage its monopoly power any more," says Steve Newborn, a former antitrust enforcer at the Federal Trade Commission. "And that's much more significant than this particular case." .................................