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

To: John Chen who wrote (4355)	12/18/1997 1:24:00 PM
From: X-Ray Man	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Look, we are talking about MSFT investment here, no? So, you can cry in your cup and decry DOJ all you want. The real question is not whether you think it is fair, correct, whatever, but what the impact will be on MSFT. My opinion is that MSFT may have made a strategic mistake. The judge was trying to provide a temporary compromise position until full review. MSFT decided to play hardball with this decision, which has now raised the ire of DOJ to another level and may also push the judge into a more hostile position. The reality is that throwing down the gauntlet forces DOJ and the government to carry this thing through to the max. Otherwise DOJ is sending a message to all other companies under anti-trust scrutiny that they can be ignored. My suspicion is that this will cost MSFT real money in fines, lawyers, and lobbiests, and that they will likely end up in a worse position than before. Actually, the move by the states is likely to cause more significant problems in the short run. If MSFT gets into serious haggles with state attornies, the states could punish MSFT in more damaging ways than DOJ, both in terms of monetary penalties and control of purse (educational purchases, for example--nixing these new deals MSFT is trying to ink with public schools). I also fear that the press is going to play this anti-MSFT. Why? Because there is no drama playing it the other way. So, MSFT longs should look at these issues with respect to the potential impact on the bottom line, and not in terms of what they think the DOJ ought to do, or what the ideal world should be like. JMO