Word: antitrusters
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When federal prosecutors asked John D. Rockefeller for financial data in the suit that broke up Standard Oil, his lawyer's response was brief and to the point: "I'll see you in hell first." Microsoft hasn't been that dismissive of its own high-profile antitrust suit, but it's come close. Vice chairman Steve Ballmer declared, "To heck with Janet Reno," last year. And earlier this month a supremely self-assured Bill Gates told a meeting of 2,000 Microsoft shareholders that "the facts simply don't support the government's claim...
Remedies in antitrust suits can be tricky. No one's going to jail (at least not based on this civil lawsuit), and the point of the suit isn't to get fines or money damages. If the Justice Department prevails, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson would have to rewrite the rules of engagement so that Microsoft could no longer unfairly exploit its dominant market position. And that could even mean what every Microsoft hater truly lusts for: a breakup of the company...
...Harvard Law School, has practiced in New York and Alabama. This week he takes on the type of question we like to ask: What if the dog actually catches the car? In this instance the question is what might actually happen to Microsoft if the government wins. "In antitrust law, finding companies guilty is easy," says Cohen. "The tough part is coming up with a remedy that forces hard-nosed competitors like Microsoft to change their ways...
...heart of Silicon Valley last Tuesday, a lone district court judge did something the entire antitrust division of the U.S. Justice Department can still only dream about: he forced Bill Gates to change one of his key business practices...
Government and antitrust lawyers are not the only ones testing Bill Gates's empire these days: Union organizers are circling. Microsoft's 260-acre campus is a cool place -- you work in jeans, play volleyball on breaks and get good pay, benefits, stock options and job security -- if you wear a blue ID badge. Those who wear orange badges (known as "A-dashes," for "agency," because of their e-mail address prefix) get no benefits, no stock options and no talk about getting on permanent staff...