[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

to be or not to be



PureBytes Links

Trading Reference Links

Time to call for a worldwide import ban on US goods + US products !!!!!!!!

(If the below joke from the very industry dominating US-government and
its marionettes gets through. First we had the CIAinfiltrating, now
the Gov themselves chainsawing the legs off of a table).

Regards,
Ton Maas
ms-irb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dismiss the ".nospam" bit (including the dot) when replying and
note the new address change. Also for my Homepage
http://home.planet.nl/~anthmaas

=========================================================

Today's WinInfo
  Report: U.S. government seeks to break up Microsoft!


Report: U.S. government seeks to break up Microsoft!

According to a report Wednesday in USA Today, the United States government
and 19 U.S. states will seek to break up Microsoft Corporation into two
smaller companies should it win its antitrust case against the software
giant. And such a victory is virtually guaranteed unless Microsoft reaches a
settlement, given the harsh language of the findings of fact, which were
issued last November. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who is overseeing the
case, will deliver his conclusions of law in February.

The U.S. government and various states had been at odds regarding the
eventual punishment of Microsoft ever since they combined forces to bring
the monopolist to justice. However, according to the USA Today report, a
consensus has finally been reached and the current plan is to split
Microsoft into two companies, one that sells its Windows operating system
and one that would sell applications software. Windows is installed on well
over 90% of all personal computers sold and in operation today.

Though Microsoft says it is open to a settlement, the company isn't
interested in being split up.

"[A breakup] would do great harm to the industry," said Microsoft
spokesperson Mike Murray.

Late Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) publicly commented on
the USA Today story, which it described as "inaccurate in several respects."
USA Today then announced that it stands by the story, however. Microsoft
shares fell almost 4 to 105 13/16 as rumors swirled about breakups and
settlement talks; Microsoft lawyers also met today in Chicago with the
mediator in its antitrust case.

Oddly enough, AOL's purchase of Time Warner this week makes Microsoft's
position in its antitrust trial more positive: Microsoft argued that its
domination of the computer industry was under constant attack and that it
could fall by the wayside at any time should its competitors come together
in a convincing way. With the AOL/Time Warner deal, that may have just
happened.