Word: antitrusters
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Microsoft Corp. won a major legal victory today when a federal appeals court reinstated a favorable 1994 Justice Department settlement of an antitrust case against the firm. The settlement had been rejected in February by federal judge Stanley Sporkin. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit also rebuked Sporkin for exceeding his authority. Sporkin's controversial ruling broadly condemned Microsoft's tactics as "monopolistic" and drew Justice Department fire as "an invitation to anarchy in the enforcement of antitrust law." Now, Microsoft is back where it was a year ago: "They dodged the bullet," saysTIME...
These issues came to a head in February, when the antitrust settlement Gates reached last July with Assistant Attorney General Anne Bingaman ran into a roadblock in the person of federal judge Stanley Sporkin. In a widely quoted decision, Judge Sporkin rejected the deal, agreeing with most observers, who believe it was too favorable to Microsoft. "It is clear to this court," he wrote, "that if it signs the decree presented to it, the message will be that Microsoft is so powerful that neither the market nor the government is capable of dealing with all of its monopolistic practices...
After Sporkin's ruling, things seemed to turn sour for Microsoft. In late April the Justice Department's antitrust division sued to prevent the company from consummating the merger with Intuit, a deal that would have been the biggest acquisition in software history. Microsoft was scheduled to fight the suit in court on June 26, but two weeks ago, the company announced that it was dropping the merger, perhaps hoping it would get the government off its back. It may be too late for that. Bingaman says her department has become a kind of "Microsoft complaint center," and her staff...
TIME: We don't live under free, unfettered capitalism. Isn't that why we have antitrust laws...
Gates: When did antitrust come up in the discussion? Antitrust is the way that the government promotes markets when there are market failures. It has nothing to do with the idea of free information...