Microsoft Corporation represents a behemoth company that leads the worldÆs technological industry. With more than $40 billion in cash reserves and another $40 billion in investments, the company is poised to please stockholders for years to come despite market and economic factors (Levy 2002). While no one argues MicrosoftÆs position as the leading corporation in the industry, many take exception with how it got there. In the 1990s, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit against Microsoft under antitrust legislation, accusing the company of monopolistic practices that stifled competition and harmed consumers. The case against Microsoft represents a number of issues with respect to economics, government regulation, and antitrust legislation that are significant topics for discussion. The case against Microsoft ignited a debate between those in favor of the governmentÆs action and those opposed to it. While competitors, state attorney generals, and a number of consumers argued the company was guilty of illegal practices that stifle competition and harm consumers, defenders of Microsoft viewed the case as one of ôsour grapesö among competitors and unfair intervention by a government û merely because Microsoft had ôbuilt a better mousetrap.ö
Observers of the Microsoft antitrust case argue that the unique nature of the technology industry and the essence of free markets û freedom of competition not perfect competition û reaffirm MicrosoftÆs claims that its market position in Web Browsers is merely the result of the rough and tumble of market processes. Competitors and the U.S. government argue that Microsoft engages in unfair competitive practices that stifle competitors, coerce partners, smother innovation, and limit consumer choice. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, the first judge to preside over the Microsoft case likened Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his company to the ômobö (Levy 2002, 10). In contr...