Antitrust Law: Analyzing AT&T and Microsoft in their cases with the Federal government. Deals with monopoly and company break-up issues

ABSTRACT:

The federal government plays a major role in affecting how big business is run. By regulating the actions of major companies that operate under monopolies, it is easy to tell that the government can change the shape of business as well as the economy. With a split of a monopoly, new competition in a market is created. This could lead to a drastic change in the company that used to run under a monopoly. The company is not used to competing and never really had to do much marketing in order to sustain their dominance. By looking at the AT&T and Microsoft antitrust lawsuits brought upon them by the federal government, one can see how there are differences in the cases, and how it is not clear as to whether Microsoft actually has a monopoly. However, if Microsoft does end up losing the lawsuit with the government, there are different ways in which the company could be broken up, but signs point to this case resembling the AT&T case. It is also apparent that the government might be using Microsoft to institute new litigation pertaining to the up and coming companies in the information age. By using a high profile company, such as Microsoft, the government will have an easier time in getting their message across that they can regulate business. No matter the outcome, it does not appear that Microsoft has a clear-cut monopoly and it is not difficult to see why.

Full Text:

The Supreme Court can play a major role in the day-to-day operations of businesses. This is evident in the cases that were brought up by the federal government against AT&T in the late seventies into the early eighties, and the recent changes brought up against Microsoft. In both these cases the federal government thought...