"Rjack" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
amicus_curious wrote:
"Rjack" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Microsoft is not the result of many mergers and acquisitions, rather the
product of a rapidly growing market for computers in the home and
workplace.
True but you missed the point.
"... And in seven
years, the Bush Justice Department has not brought a single
monopolization case." -- Statement of Senator Barack Obama for the
American Antitrust Institute
http://www.antitrustinstitute.org/archives/files/aai-%20Presidential%20campaign%20-%20Obama%209-07_092720071759.pdf
"Monopolization case" as in:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
Section 2. Monopolizing trade a felony; penalty
Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or
conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the
trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall
be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be
punished by fine not exceeding $10,000,000 if a corporation, or, if any
other person, $350,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding three years, or
by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
With the Bush administration gone we could see competitors emboldened for
the first time since 1998.
I understood the point to be as stated in your original post, i.e. that
Microsoft will find itself in the crosshairs of the Obama administration's
DOJ. But Obama's thoughts seem to be contained in:
"The consequences of lax enforcement for consumers are clear. Take health
care, for
example. There have been over 400 health care mergers in the last 10 years.
The
American Medical Association reports that 95% of insurance markets in the
United States are now highly concentrated and the number of insurers has
fallen by
just under 20% since 2000. These changes were supposed to make the industry
more
efficient, but instead premiums have skyrocketed, increasing over 87 percent
over the
past six years."
Where he refers to the lack of oversight for mergers and acquisitions as the
culprit. Microsoft has grown to its monopoly position via development of
its core product and not through such mergers. I don't know if healthcare
insurers are bad or good, they do seem to compete with one another even when
there are only a handful of big ones. But the money there is a lot. My
company and I together pay about $700 per month for coverage. I buy a new
computer about every three years and may end up indirectly paying Microsoft
$50 or $100 for Windows. Healthcare (and auto insurance and just about
everything else) is a much bigger fish to fry than the embedded cost of the
OS in a PC.
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