The Microsoft Case

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The Microsoft Case Microsoft was investigated for anti-trust behavior because of violations under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The government accused Microsoft of performing anticompetitive business practices in order to maintain their monopoly structure. These anticompetitive business practices included Microsoft signing agreements with PC manufacturers that “required them to feature Internet Explorer on the PC desktop and penalize companies that promoted software products that competed with Microsoft products.” (McConnell, Brue, and Flynn, Economics, 19th Edition, 2012, p. 386). Additionally under these agreements, Microsoft would share their coding with these PC manufacturers but withheld such coding from other companies who featured Netscape. In summary, Microsoft would bundle their Internet Explorer and Windows with the PC manufacturers by making it compatible with those manufacturers only. In connection, Microsoft would not share their computer code with others in order to gain more market share with their products. I do not believe Microsoft was trying to gain monopoly power in the computer software industry. As I see it, it was purely business oriented. By making deals with PC manufacturing companies, Microsoft was including Internet Explorer for free with its Windows package. If a PC manufacturer also included the option for one of Microsoft’s competitors, Microsoft would charge them more and not supply certain Microsoft code to those manufacturers. I personally do not see a problem with Microsoft charging more for their Windows to PC manufacturers who were also trying to offer Netscape or any other software. As I see it, Microsoft was trying to make the company more attractable to these PC manufacturers by being the sole provider and bundling Internet Explorer with its Windows. In working with car parts, I give a bigger discount to those buyers who buy

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