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

To: Logos who wrote (6819)	5/10/1998 11:34:00 AM
From: Beta Nasdaq	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Windows 98 To show you what a nice guy I am I'm gonna give you all a copy of Windows 98. Go to this site and upgrade everything. microsoft.com

To: Logos who wrote (6819)	5/10/1998 8:58:00 PM
From: John F. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

To Hazem: Compaq wanted to change the way Windows looked on Compaq computers. I wonder how Ford GM and others would like it if some dealer put a different name and hood ornament on their car and maybe fiddled under the hood with a few things in order to create a differentiated product? It seems that MSFT is perfectly within their rights. Where were the tears when Jobs refused to renew the licenses of Mac clone makers. Jobs simply acted within the covenants of their contract. It was probably a bad decision in the long run on Job's part but certainly within the bounds of the contract. MSFT acted within the bounds of the contract that was freely entered into by MSFT and CPQ. CPQ could have made a deal with another OS vendor if they wanted to and walked away from the contract they had signed after they were given the ultimatum by MSFT presuming that it was more than a tough no nonsense negotiating position. JFD

To: Logos who wrote (6819)	5/10/1998 11:35:00 PM
From: Dwight E. Karlsen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Take AST. A friend of mine bought an AST Pentium 60 with Win95, just after Win95 was introduced. Yet AST layered a totally new interface on top of Win95. MSFT evidently didn't deny them that right, and certainly AST didn't go out of business by not having the standard interface that Win95 is configured with. There's usually two sides to every story, and so far everyone seems automatically sympathetic to Compaq, who isn't exactly a small defenseless company. CPQ is in fact the world's largest PC manufacturer. You can bet that CPQ leverages this fact to deals beneficial to their favor every time they can. As you say, Compaq did a similar thing to someone else. Individuals negotiating on behalf of companies play these sorts of power games all the time, constantly testing each other's power. It's just a fact of corporate life.