Word: kleine
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...week's convoluted maneuverings is that each side in the biggest antitrust case in two decades knew where its counterpart stood well before the conflict's looming D-day--Microsoft's May 15 deadline for giving its new operating system, Windows 98, to PC manufacturers. DOJ antitrust chief Joel Klein believed that the ways Microsoft uses its Windows monopoly to dominate other markets violate antitrust law, and that the company had to be reined in lest it gain a choke hold on the Internet. Gates felt otherwise, and had long since made it clear that he would rather fight than...
...when the DOJ suit was postponed, the state attorneys general who convened at the Justice building were naturally curious to learn why. Klein explained that Gates had called the night before, offering what appeared to be real concessions, including easing restrictions on what PC makers could put on their opening screens. That hardly squared with Gates' longtime obstinance on such matters, but Klein, whose sensitivity to politics and diplomacy would have made him a standout at the State Department, was willing to go the extra mile just in case. The states, however, were determined to maintain strategic independence...
...biggest antitrust actions ever; Microsoft hoping to learn as much as possible about the DOJ's case without actually surrendering any serious ground; and those state attorneys general, who at the Monday press conference distributed bios along with their press releases, clearly relishing their role as Joel Klein's conscience. "Quite frankly," Vacco confides, "until last week we weren't 100% sure the Department of Justice was going...
Will such evidence be sufficient? Early handicapping from antitrust experts gives Klein high odds in the first part of his case--proving Windows is a monopoly, duh--but rates his chance of overall victory as fifty-fifty at best. "Justice will have to show Microsoft has achieved a dangerous amount of control of the browser market," notes George Mason law professor William Kovacic, a former Federal Trade Commission antitrust enforcer. "That's a fairly demanding test...
...proposed remedies are raising eyebrows even higher. Klein, effectively, wants Microsoft either to ship Windows without Explorer or to bundle Navigator as well; allow PC makers to modify their desktops at will and remove Explorer if they so desire; and let online services that have Windows deals promote the Netscape browser anyway. Microsoft responds that stripping Explorer from Windows 98 would mean rewriting significant parts of an operating system that contains 18.2 million lines of code, thus greatly hampering its release--a dubious definition of consumer protection...