Word: antitrusters
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...last October that Microsoft would buy Intuit -- maker of the popular "electronic-checkbook" program Quicken -- it looked as if the software giant would not only eliminate a meddlesome competitor but also gain an instant beachhead in the fast-growing field of electronic commerce. There were grumblings, of course, about antitrust, but hardly anyone seemed to think they would lead anywhere. After all, the Department of Justice's antitrust division had just wrapped up a four-year federal investigation of Microsoft by negotiating a consent decree that the industry viewed as little more than a slap on the wrist...
...deal did not go through as planned. Last week, three days after the government took Microsoft's side in court on an appeal related to the consent decree, the Justice Department filed suit to block the Microsoft-Intuit merger. The $2 billion deal, government antitrust lawyers argued, would reduce competition, raise software prices and dampen innovation...
What happened? In two words: Stanley Sporkin. In February the maverick federal judge rejected as inadequate the antitrust decree Gates had negotiated last summer with Assistant Attorney General Anne Bingaman, publically chastising the government's chief trustbuster for failing to curb what he viewed as Microsoft's abuse of a monopoly position. Both the government and Microsoft insist that one case had nothing to do with the other. But someone at Justice seemed to think they might be linked in the court of public opinion. The department assigned more lawyers to its investigation of the Intuit deal right after...
...share. In fact, the company was doing so poorly with its Microsoft Money program that when the merger was announced, Gates offered to give it to archrival Novell in a deal one pundit characterized as "Money for nothing." Part of the idea was to head off antitrust challenges by creating ready-made competition to Microsoft-Intuit...
...Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit to block Microsoft's proposed $2 billion acquisition of Intuit, Inc., maker of the hugely popular personal-finance software Quicken. The merger, should it survive the suit, would be the largest ever in the software industry...