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The anti-trust regulators have targeted almost all but one of the FAAMG companies and that is Microsoft, who certainly knows how to avoid a break-up of their en
by rvz 2y ago
The anti-trust regulators have targeted almost all but one of the FAAMG companies and that is Microsoft, who certainly knows how to avoid a break-up of their entire company.
The rest have not dealt with totally removing their cases entirely, so it makes sense for the FTC and the DOJ to target everyone else first before lastly bringing up a massive case against Microsoft.
Perhaps that is their strategy in all of this.
- croes 2y agoHow about renaming FB to Trumpbook?
- diyftw 2y agoThere's a reason there's no M in FAANG. Unlike those "upstarts", Microsoft is more like the Lockheed Martin or GE of tech. There is so much Microsoft software in use in the gov't (especially the DoD) that it would be precarious to prosecute/regulate them.
- balls187 2y ago> Microsoft is more like the Lockheed Martin or GE of tech This analogy is apt in so many ways (in addition to the prevalence of MS software in the .gov setting)
- rvz 2y agoThat isn't the reason nor is that a convincing argument to not enforce anti-trust laws against a particular company. So one is allowed to have a monopoly in government software and the rest are not? Reducing competition is one of the goals of a monopolist and anti-trust laws applies to all, no exceptions. Don't you think there are other companies competing against Microsoft for government contracts like Amazon, Google or even Palantir that includes software? Also, Apple isn't some "upstart" either.
- snovymgodym 2y ago> There's a reason there's no M in FAANG. Yeah, there's a very simple reason: the FAANG acronym was coined around 2013 when Microsoft was still in a rut, Ballmer was still CEO, and their stock was still down from its dot-com bubble peak.
- BlueTemplar 2y agoI'm pretty sure that at least part of the reason is that Netflix (despite being much less relevant) is in the Silicon Valley, while Microsoft is not. So this is specifically a Silicon Valley / Hacker News thing (notably relevant to lifestyle and employment issues). The rest of the world has been using GAFAM instead, even before 2013. (I've also seen "the big 5" sometimes.)
- BigGreenJorts 2y agoBut Amazon is also based in Washington
- BlueTemplar 2y agoThanks, uh, I am not sure how I missed that...