alternatehistory.com

Okay this is a question that's been on my mind a while since I first studied Cartel Law. Tried to see if this has been asked before but I couldn't find any threads on the topic.

Microsoft (like a lot of major tech companies) has had something of a sordid past, routinely employing less than ethical marketing and business techniques in order to eliminate competition.

In 1998, Microsoft was taken to court for illegally removing competition and abusing it's position in the market. The casedragged on for two years before the courts decided that Microsoft was guilty of nuemrous breaches including monoplization and attempted monopolization in the case of the United States v Microsoft. The judge ordered that the company be split in two seperate entities, one to produce the operating systems and the other to produce software.

This decsion was ultiamtely overturned on appeal, however what would have been the consequences of this decison had it stuck? What if the appeal had been rejected? How would the tech industry look with one of it's major players split up? How might this split look? What are the legal ramifications for other companies? What would the effect on other companies like Apple be? I'm keen to hear what people's thoughts on the effects would be. :)
Top