Microsoft and Antitrust Remedies

Microsoft and Antitrust Remedies

Introduction

Microsoft has been one of the market leaders in the industry of computers and technology. The antitrust trial against the company has harmed its reputation and imaged to a great extent. Many people have become doubtful about its reputation. They are wondering if it is actually a monopoly in the industry and taking advantage of its position by playing against the rules of the game. The court had some interesting findings and facts against the company. If Microsoft loses by any chance and the US government wins, then it will have long lasting effects on the way computer industry operates in the country.

Discussion

Any organization can be a monopoly if it has following three characteristics in terms of its operations and products (Cuellar, 2000).

The organization must be selling unique products and is dominating the industry in terms of products or services.

The products that an organization sells have no close alternatives or substitutes. It does not have any competition.

Entering the industry is very difficult due to strong barriers in the form of market share, patent, license, competition etc.

There can never be a single firm operating in an industry. But an organization can be termed as a monopoly it dominates the market in terms of market share. For instance, DeBeers is stated to rule the market of diamonds and has a market share of 80 percent as compared to other diamond companies. Different acts and court has not been very successful in defining the term of monopoly. They also use market share as measure or tool to classify particular organization as a monopoly. Additionally, it is very important to define the relevant market where the company sells its products and to identify if the company's market share is more than 70 percent in that selected relevant market. ...