What can never be fully known, of course, are (i) the innovative products that would have come to market had developers not been deterred by Microsoft's illegal assault on potential competitors and (ii) the benefits that consumers would have realized if Microsoft's operating systems monopoly had been eroded. The evidence detailed in these Proposed Findings establishes both the anticompetitive tactics Microsoft employed and the harm to competition and consumers those tactics caused. In other words, Microsoft prevented consumers from getting what they wanted so that Microsoft could keep what it had - a monopoly in operating systems.įor a long time now - and, if Microsoft's actions to maintain its monopoly are not halted, for well into the future - personal computer consumers are locked into a Microsoft world, one in which a single company essentially controls the configuration of desktop computing. It succeeded in preserving Microsoft's monopoly power by preventing the successful development of alternative platforms that could have eroded its Windows monopoly and given consumers greater choice. As one of Microsoft's top executives candidly acknowledged: "we were very concerned that if the user saw Netscape Navigator side by side with Internet Explorer. Microsoft's actions demonstrate that it believed it could not win simply by competing on the merits. Microsoft acted quickly to squelch this evolving middleware threat to what it sometimes called its "desktop paradise," first by proposing an illegal division of markets, and then by embarking on a predatory campaign to restrict the distribution and usage of Netscape's browser and, in Microsoft's words, to "cut off Netscape's air supply." But Microsoft's broad anticompetitive campaign has not been limited to preempting the browser threat Microsoft sought to curtail other actual or potential middleware threats to its operating system monopoly, including Sun's Java, Intel's Native Signal Processing, and Apple's QuickTime. Non-Microsoft browsers, if widely used, promised to form the center of an emerging middleware platform that could have helped to erode the high applications barrier to entry that protects Microsoft's monopoly. Most prominent among these was the threat posed by competing Internet browsers, particularly Netscape's Navigator. Plaintiffs' Joint Proposed Findings of Fact, and the evidence on which they are based, demonstrate that Microsoft has engaged in a broad pattern of unlawful conduct with the purpose and effect of thwarting emerging threats to its powerful and well-entrenched operating system monopoly. PLAINTIFFS' JOINT PROPOSED FINDINGS OF FACT For an official signed copy, please contact the Antitrust Documents Group. To view the PDF format you will need Acrobat Reader, which may be downloaded from the Adobe site. This document is also available in PDF format (comparable to original document formatting).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |