On Thursday October 31, 2001, Microsoft and the Justice Department announced that they have reached an agreement on the antitrust case a final hearing will be held on November 2, 2001. This all started in 1999 when a federal judge found that Microsoft has illegally abused its monopoly power in the marketplace for operating systems. Once the agreement was announced stocks lifted. This announcement helped out struggling tech companies such as Broadcom and IBM. Both of these stocks rose over a dollar. Analysts say that any market upturns could be “short-lived” and die tomorrow. Microsoft may have helped out the Tech companies but other manufacturing companies are still falling. On the other hand European Commission is investigating Microsoft also. They are saying “Microsoft is deliberately embedding damaging rivals by embedding its proprietary audio and video software.” Microsoft has agreed to give out the source code so competition can match their software. Does anybody really have a chance against Microsoft?Part 2I feel that this article is important to this class because it shows some of the legal arguments major companies have to go through. I feel that the justice department should give up the fight against Microsoft. But on the other hand if they do give up it might make the Tech Companies plummet to the ground.Part 3The points I am in most agreement with is that Microsoft has to finally share the wealth, so to speak. Bill Gates is a greedy man and will do anything to gain more money. The states and European commission is finally putting their foot down on this one. Part 4I am in disagreement most with the fact that customers are afraid to buy any software but Microsoft. This could eventually hurt fellow Tech Companies. There are many third party suppliers of Internet Browsers that are just as great or better then Microsoft. Part 5The questions I feel the article left unanswered are the foll...
