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

To: freeus who wrote (7505)	5/18/1998 4:49:00 PM
From: Ramsey Su	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

freeus, weblocator.com I am absolutely anti-government but that is really not the issue here. Regarding monopolies, what if there are no anti-trust laws? If there are only two choices, I think I prefer living under the anti-trust laws vs the control of monopolies. Emotions aside, MSFT as we knew it is officially history. DOJ is going to scrutinize every minute component, every action and every acquisition and every future product. This is not necessary bad. It is time MSFT move on, parlaying their success into bigger and better things. Frankly, I am disappointed at Bill Gates. He would truly be an innovator if he can lead MSFT into the future, rather than hanging on to the past. Ramsey

To: freeus who wrote (7505)	5/18/1998 5:54:00 PM
From: Charles Tutt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

And bad companies should pay the price of their transgressions, not be idolized. JMHO.

To: freeus who wrote (7505)	5/18/1998 6:05:00 PM
From: Brian Malloy	Respond to of 74651

I laughed today with some amusement while Janet Reno was attempting to explain why MSFT is anti consumer. Here is somebody that for all practical purposes can not or will no longer use a computer. Yet she can speak as an authority on PC's and consumers. The mind boggles <ggg> HEADLINE: Reno Pencils In a Change: She Goes Back Off-Line While her antitrust lawyers are delving deep into the computer industry, Attorney General Janet Reno has forsaken her personal computer and returned to paper and pencil. She said at her weekly news conference yesterday that confusion over learning a new computer system drove her from cyberspace. As she spoke, her antitrust chief, Joel Klein, and three state attorneys general assembled two floors below in the Justice Department to negotiate a truce in their probe of software giant Microsoft. "I was doing okay with the office computer in Miami," said Reno, who was the state's attorney there before becoming U.S. attorney general in 1993. "I was getting fairly fluent with it. And then I came to Washington and had to learn anew. I didn't do a very good job of it." Under Reno, the Justice Department has set up several World Wide Web sites for adults and children who use computers, but she said, "At this moment I do not have a personal relationship with a computer." washingtonpost.com

To: freeus who wrote (7505)	5/18/1998 6:27:00 PM
From: C. Niebucc	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Microsoft Vs. Lots Of Lawyers AN INDUSTRY IS BORN Shaifali Puri 05/25/98 Fortune Magazine Time Inc. Page 27+ (Copyright 1998) When it comes to finding the lawyer's equivalent of the mother lode, plaintiffs attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs is the canniest of prospectors. As anyone knows who has followed Scruggs' orchestration of the legal campaign against Big Tobacco, it is worth paying attention when the wily Mississippian drawls the name of the company he wants to go after next: "Mah-crow-soft." With 13 state attorneys general and the Justice Department set to file complaints against the company in early May, Scruggs may well have been signaling a gold rush. In fact, the most significant aspect of the state and federal actions against Microsoft may be what one source familiar with the states' case gleefully calls "the cottage industry in Microsoft litigation." "I'd have to do some more research," Scruggs tells FORTUNE, "but it seems like something that we'd like to be involved in." And there's a good chance they will be: The states cannot finance extensive litigation against a company as rich as Microsoft ; they'd have to enlist lawyers like Scruggs--on a contingency-fee basis. One source close to the case says the current complaints are only the beginning: "We are investigating Microsoft 's actions with respect to Java, Windows NT, and their foray into consumer electronics.... We're potentially talking about years of investigation." For Scruggs and his ilk, "years" has a nice ring to it. He says that he has already had "informal" discussions with Mississippi attorney general Michael Moore about suing Microsoft . (Scruggs represented Mississippi in its anti-tobacco lawsuit; the state has not formally joined any complaint.) For Bill Gates, the specter of Scruggs' taking his pickax to Redmond is scary enough. But the real threat such a litigious free- for-all will pose is the ingenuity it's likely to inspire in other attorneys looking for new ways--and new grounds--to sue the company. Technology law is still fairly unexplored terrain, and the states' interest in Microsoft could open the door to a whole new tech- oriented plaintiffs bar. Some high-tech lawyers have already expressed interest in working with the states to come up with new antitrust cases against Microsoft --and a host of new complainants, including Microsoft competitors and customers, are just as eager to hire them.