Re: Company, government eyeing deal?

[Doug Masson <dmasson@iquest.net>]

On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Mitch Stone wrote:

> 
> What I've feared all along, and what I've convinced myself is more likely 
> now then ever, is an essentially voluntary breakup. I suspect it will be 
> very difficult for the DoJ to maintain a firm grip the details in the 
> ways they must, and as you suggest. I'd expect all of their carefully 
> cultivated political and legal capital to evaporate in a flash. To see 
> this happen, all Gates would need to do is announce publicly their 
> willingness to break up the company to settle the suit. Then they get to 
> do it about 99% their way.
> 
> The only real question is: does the Microsoft leadership have the nerve 
> to lay that card on the table?


The DoJ doesn't have to agree to an MS offer to settle. Politically, a
settlement might be more expedient but not preordained I don't think. One
thing this trial has done is to ruin MSs credibility (such as it was) in a
big way. The DoJ could go a long way toward resisting political
pressures with a simple argument that runs along the lines of: "A company
that would offer a doctored tape as evidence to a court of law cannot be
trusted to administer its own remedy to its repeated and systematic
antitrust violations."

---Doug