Microsoft Anti Trust Case Essay - 800 words

In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Since then there has been very few companies that have violated this act. In 1911 it was used it to break J. D. Rockefellers Standard Oil trust in to 30 different competing companies. Then in 1982 AT&Ts monopoly was broken up in what has been called the biggest anti-trust case to date.


Now Microsoft has been charged and found guilty. (America's History Of Lack of trust in Microsoft started in 1991 when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began its investigations that Microsoft had monopolized the market on PC operating systems. Their investigation continued until 1993 when the FTC came just two votes short of filing a formal complaint against Microsoft for antitrust violations. At this time the FTC closed its investigations but the Justice Department and European Commission began independent searches. (Microsoft, DOJ timeline 1999) In 1994 Microsoft agreed to change their contracts with PC makers and got rid of some restrictions on other software makers thus settling both the Justice Department and European Commissions antitrust investigations. Then in January of 1995, Stanley Sporting, a U.


S. district judge, rejects the settlement but in the June the U. S. Court of Appeals reinstates the settlement. In April of the same year Microsoft was prohibited from buying Intuit because it could drive up software prices and diminish innovation. (Microsoft, In October of 1995 the Justice Department sues Microsoft for supposedly violating the 1994 agreement by requiring Internet Explorer to be installed on all PCs loaded with Windows 95.


The European Commission also begins looking into Microsoft's practices. In the same month, Compaq Computer Corp. , the worlds largest personal PC maker, claimed that Microsoft threatened to terminate Compaq's Windows 95 license if they didnt put Internet Explorer on any computers that they put Windows 95 on. The next month The Justice department charges Microsoft with knowingly integrating their web browser into Windows 95 in a desperate attempt to steal the market from Netscape Communications Corp. (Microsoft, DOJ timeline 2000) On December 11 th 1997, Thomas Penfield Jackson, a U. S. District Judge, issues a preliminary injunction forcing Microsoft to stop requiring PC makers to install Internet Explorer on computers. A month later, Microsoft comes to a partial settlement with the Justice Department.


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Essay Tags: anti trust, pc makers, u s district, justice department, pc operating systems

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