Microsoft and Anti-Trust

[William S. Lear]

On Tue, May 19, 1998 at 11:41:48 (-0400) Doug Henwood writes:
>...
>Who's really behind this suit? I don't think the U.S. DoJ or 20 state AGs
>would go after this behemoth if there weren't some significant ruling class
>interest in doing so, but who? How? Why? Larry Ellison & Marc Andressen
>don't carry enough weight on their own. Anyone understand this?

Sorry for the late response, but I've been away...

I asked this question of Thomas Ferguson, since I was kinda curious
about it myself, and hadn't seen anything that really satisfied my
curiosity.  Here is his response:


>I think the main protagonists were banks and the entire entertainment
>industry, esp. TV. Microsoft is aggressively trying (with its
>financial software, Quicken or Intuit, I forget which, to grab
>everything that is a financial transaction; its clash over TV is
>obvious, I think, since the question is whether the TV becomes a
>computer or vice versa. Once Justice moved, big chunks of the computer
>industry also piled on. I actually think this is straightforward. We
>know who Clinton loves and vice versa.

Bill