AP: DOJ Won’t Pursue Microsoft Breakup.
Bad, bad, bad news for competition. The government has caved in, giving Microsoft all it needs to consolidate its chokehold over the computer industry and extend its brutal authority into more of our lives.
Foregoing a breakup means that the government leaves itself no serious leverage in the supposed negotiations for a settlement. What incentive does Microsoft have left to behave? None. Hell, why not just drop the case?
There’s never been a better case for a breakup than now, particularly in light of Microsoft’s continued sleazy, anticompetitive behavior in the face of its loss in the courtroom. Yet the people entrusted with protecting competition have chosen to take the easy way out of this case, and they have abandoned the public they’ve sworn oaths to protect.
What a disheartening development.