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

To: Wahoo96 who wrote (11575)	10/21/1998 10:58:00 AM
From: PMS Witch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

"remedies that may be levied against MSFT if they should lose this case. ..." I agree. It would be useful to explore the worst case. If MSFT gets there, the stock would probably move only one direction for a while after, making the next few bucks easy to bag. PW.

To: Wahoo96 who wrote (11575)	10/21/1998 11:00:00 AM
From: ToySoldier	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

my 2 cents (3.02 cents Canadian), Specifically related to the case that the DOJ and MSFT are battling this is what could be imposed on MSFT: MSFT could be forced to remove IE from Win98 and future releases of NT (eg. NT5). The IE would then be sold separately either off-the-shelf or provided to consumers as a download from the MSFT web-site (for free I would guess since that seems to be the price-point for the browsers). I find this to be the likely remedy that the courts would impose on MSFT. This would be a big hit on MSFT because it would likely stop the NSCP marketshare bleeding since the consumer now makes the choice of browser completely based on product merits and not because one is already installed and the other isnt. The other problem that MSFT would face on this decision is that MSFT has so entrenched IE into its OS now that pulling it out of NT5 would likely cause even further substantial delays in the NT5 release date and it would likely now effect MSFT's other features of the interface and OS which would now have to be re-worked. The other remedy would be for the courts to impose that all competitive browsers would be included in the Win98 and NT5 software and an option screen during the install process would ask "which browser would you like to have installed". I dont find that to be a likely candidate because of the shier logistics of implementing this remedy. How many other browser competitors must be included? How do these competitors upgrade their code on this MSFT CD? etc. etc. The remedy of MSFT having to be broke apart will likely not show up as a direct outcome of this case, but, there is a strong likihood that subsequent actions might be taken by the government because of the evidence revealed in the case. That would be to answer the longer term questions of "so now that the browser issue with MSFT is solved, how do we prevent MSFT from doing this to several of the other new technology companies that show up?" Breaking up the company would be a potential answer. Toy