Re: Microsoft Cleared In Conn. Of Antitrust Violations

[Mitch Stone <mstone@vc.net>]

--- From a message sent by Joe Barr on 7/18/1999 12:06 PM ---

>> Perhaps, but I keep asking myself a selfish question: what does it matter 
>> to me anyway? Even if Bristol had won a large cash settlement from 
>> Microsoft, how does that affect the market for competing products? Not 
>> one bit. This is especially the case with the Caldera suit -- a battle 
>> over a long-obsolete product. Unless you believe that Microsoft, once 
>> bitten, is twice shy, then the outcomes of these antitrust suits are 
>> anticlimaxes to non-events.
>
>I disagree.  A quarter billion here, a few billion there, pretty soon you are
>talking about real money.  MS will never operate within the law when it is so
>easy and so profitable to continue to steal, pillage, and rape.

The assessment must substantially impact the bottom line, or it will be 
written off as just another cost of doing business -- that's how the auto 
companies justify incinerating people so they can shave twenty bucks a 
car. So how big is Microsoft's war chest these days -- somewhere in 
excess of $12 billion? To put a dent in this bankroll, the damages would 
have to be genuinely immense and perhaps unprecedented -- a couple of 
billion, at least.  Do I consider a such an award likely? No, not really, 
and large awards are always reduced, either on appeal or otherwise. Don't 
hold your breath, is my advice.

>Further, every case brought against their unregulated monopoly brings to 
>their
>enterprise the thing it likes least: light.  It will take enormous ill-will
>towards MS to bring them down.  The good news is that they have an incredible
>knack for creating it.

Every case, as in one down and one to go? Look, over the years Microsoft 
has survived at least a couple private antitrust suits, and they're in an 
even better position now to lay some cash on the table and walk away, 
assuming it even comes to that.

I do agree that these cases can shed light into the dark corners of 
Microsoft's business practices. That's about their only value, IMO. You 
must remember also that in private cases, the entire record is often 
sealed.

Mitch Stone
mstone@vc.net