3 ms·

I think it's kind of naive to think that antitrust litigation will really fundamentally alter the balance of power with these companies. Remember, that initial

I think it's kind of naive to think that antitrust litigation will really fundamentally alter the balance of power with these companies. Remember, that initially Microsoft lost their antitrust lawsuit and was ordered to break up. On appeal MS managed to get the order to bifurcate the company overturned and the rest is history. MS is bigger and worth more now than it was back during the antitrust lawsuit, although it also faces a lot more competition now and has no clear monopoly outside of perhaps business productivity software.

Barrin92 6y ago
don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. The anti-trust lawsuit took a lot of wind out of microsoft sails and probably played it's part in helping to break its browser monopoly.
- zepto 6y ago
  The browser monopoly was first broken by Mozilla Firefox, and then Apple and Google developing WebKit and Chrome. There is no reason an industry consortium couldn’t produce a new platform.
  - baby 6y ago
    Not only this but they caught some slack due to IE being built-in and users having no options to start their browsing experience.
furyofantares 6y ago
> MS is bigger and worth more now than it was back during the antitrust lawsuit I'm pretty sure it changed their behavior for quite some time though. And wouldn't the relevant comparison be whether it outpaced the growth of the tech sector in the last 20 years rather than whether it's bigger than ever? Like if MS is 10x bigger now and the industry is 20x bigger then that would indicate to me that maybe they didn't choke out competition using monopoly power.
Zanni 6y ago
The breakup decision always seemed insane to me. You've decided this hyper-competitive company is a problem, so now you want two of them? (Yes, I understand the intent was to defeat some perceived synergies, but I'm not sure that's how it would have played out. I was--and am--an MSFT shareholder, and the prospect of being forced, I say forced to hold stock in two company's with Microsoft's DNA ... did not dismay me.)

Barrin92 6y ago

don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. The anti-trust lawsuit took a lot of wind out of microsoft sails and probably played it's part in helping to break its browser monopoly.

zepto 6y ago
The browser monopoly was first broken by Mozilla Firefox, and then Apple and Google developing WebKit and Chrome. There is no reason an industry consortium couldn’t produce a new platform.
- baby 6y ago
  Not only this but they caught some slack due to IE being built-in and users having no options to start their browsing experience.

furyofantares 6y ago

> MS is bigger and worth more now than it was back during the antitrust lawsuit I'm pretty sure it changed their behavior for quite some time though. And wouldn't the relevant comparison be whether it outpaced the growth of the tech sector in the last 20 years rather than whether it's bigger than ever? Like if MS is 10x bigger now and the industry is 20x bigger then that would indicate to me that maybe they didn't choke out competition using monopoly power.

Zanni 6y ago

The breakup decision always seemed insane to me. You've decided this hyper-competitive company is a problem, so now you want two of them? (Yes, I understand the intent was to defeat some perceived synergies, but I'm not sure that's how it would have played out. I was--and am--an MSFT shareholder, and the prospect of being forced, I say forced to hold stock in two company's with Microsoft's DNA ... did not dismay me.)