[Random-bits] David Wilson: PFF says break MS up

[James Love]

http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/ms012700.htm


Conservative think tank urges Microsoft breakup

BY DAVID L. WILSON

Mercury News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- A Washington think tank best known for its conservative views 
has taken a look at Microsoft Corp.'s antitrust case and will today 
recommend in a report that the company be broken up.

The presiding judge in the Microsoft trial found in November that the 
company held monopoly power in the market for personal computer operating 
systems and had used that power to stifle competition and harm consumers. 
If Microsoft is found next to have violated law, it will face 
court-mandated remedies later this year -- possibly a breakup plan.

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The Progress & Freedom Foundation, staffed largely by former members of the 
Reagan and Bush administrations, says the least disruptive way for the 
government to handle the problem of Microsoft's monopoly is to separate it 
into several companies allowed to sell Microsoft's proprietary Windows 
operating system, thereby creating competition in the market.

<snip>