In late May, 1998, Microsoft founder and CEO Bill Gates (the richest businessman in the world) and Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (the richest investor in the world) gave a special speech (to be aired by PBS this fall) about competition in American business in general and the computer industry in specific. At one point, the moderator asked what was the appropriate role for antitrust law in American business? Gates answered that the essential role of competition law is to "protect consumers and to make sure that new products get created and that those products are very innovative" (Schlender, Buffett & Gates, 1998, 48). From Gates' point of view, there were serious antitrust violations in the computer industry before Microsoft came along: "Once you bought a computer from Digital or IBM or Hewlett-Packard or anyone else, the software that you created only ran on that computer" (Schlender, Buffett & Gates, 1998, 49). Against this situation Gates envisioned a "democratizing software" that would destroy the barriers of incompatibility and allow software to run on any platform. At last he came to the point:
I think antitrust laws as written are fine. There are people who will debate whether they should be weaker, but that's of academic interest. When I come in to do business, I'm very careful to check with our lawyers to be sure we're steering a hundred miles away from anything that would be questionable. So it is somewhat of a surprise to find ourselves in an antitrust controversy. Thank goodness for the judiciary, which is an environment in which facts are tested and people can see if competition worked in the way it should and has been beneficial to consumers. There's no doubt in our minds where that is going to come out (Schlender, Buffett & Gates, 1998, 49).
Some critics would replace Gates' choice of the word "competition" with the word "rivalry" which many observers see as the real situation wit...