Re: ``Nothing like a monopoly to get investors to cheer you on''

["Eric M. Bennett" <ericb@pobox.com>]

Brett Glass wrote:

>One might well see it as a collaborative effort at predatory pricing. The
>effects are no different than if a private company did it.

In terms of its effect on the ability of other companies to make money at
their current rates, I agree.

But in other ways it is different: if a traditional monopolist uses this
tactic, the intention is to get a monopoly by dumping and then raise
prices.  Then the market suffers.  The monopolist dumps product now to be
able to gain later.

But Linux drives the price down and *keeps* it there.  This is very
different from how a private company would generally behave in this
situation.



--
Eric Bennett (http://www.pobox.com/~ericb/)
Cornell University, Field of Biochemistry
377 Olin Chemistry Lab

TIP: Buy Apple Computer
WHY: According to Microsoft, the big, bad, scary Macintosh-maker threatened
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