"Rjack" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
I may be that the Obama administration won't initiate action spontaneously
but you can bet that Big Blue will stir the pot
any way it can. IBM is the biggest agitator in the EU and I'm sure they'll
test the waters with the new Obama administration.
I don't think that the motivation for the past activities of the DOJ vs
Microsoft in the USofA had anything to do with IBM. Rather, they had to do
with Janet Reno's difficulties with Orin Hatch and the relations that Hatch
had with his pew-mate in SLC, Ray Noorda. Reno was on the spot to grill Al
Gore over some fund raising on Federal property/time issues and came up with
a case against Microsoft as a sort of reward for Hatch quietly dropping the
subpoenas and investigation into Gore's activities. They got somewhat
slapped in the face by a not-so-humble Microsoft and that instigated the
retaliatory States and DOJ case.
That case established a lot of findings of fact and law that overall
resulted in very little damage to Microsoft in regard to antitrust. They
paid a lot of money for resultant civil class action suits over pricing,
but, as far as I know, those are all over now. Going forward, there is not
much that has not already been adjudicated over Microsoft's market position
and business activities. They are not doing anything to violate the court
orders of 2002, so there is nothing much that IBM could complain about or
that the DOJ could take action in regard to. Any tieing or monopoly
leveraging claims regarding IE cannot be filed due to the dismissal with
predjudice/limits that the DCCCofA established and resulted in all such
claims being dropped by the States and DOJ.
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