Regardless of how you felt about the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) actions against Microsoft ten years ago, the Bush administration's more relaxed view towards antitrust made a significant difference in the ultimate outcome of that case.
The US DOJ did not bring a single antitrust case against a dominant company during the 8 years of George W. Bush's administration. Instead, the DOJ tried to build a "safe harbor of conduct" for those dominant firms to protect them from antitrust consideration.
The new DOJ antitrust chief, Christine Varney, has scrapped the Bush administration’s monopoly guidelines and appears to be moving to a much more aggressive antitrust position towards major industries, including airlines, railroads, cable companies, food processors, and pharmaceuticals (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/business/26antitrust.html?_r=2). The DOJ is also beginning to investigate Google for its agreement reached with book publishers. The Senate is holding hearings regarding Apple's exclusive iPhone deal with AT&T, and the Federal Trade Commission is looking at Apple for blocking a Google telephony application from the iPhone.
Intel isn't under the microscope quite yet, although the FTC began investigating them on antitrust grounds last year. Nvidia is complaining about Intel bundling a bundled Atom CPU for less than it costs by itself, and AMD's antitrust lawsuit against Intel, filed in 2005 (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/102830/Update_AMD_files_broad_ant...), is expected to go to trial next year in Delaware.
Intel was already fined $1.44 billion earlier this year by the EU for anticompetitive behavior against AMD, and $25 million in South Korea last year. Should they be nervous? I think so.
For additional information, see
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/080409-obama-administration-new-le... and http://www.cio.com/article/498872/Obama_Administration_New_Legal_Researc....
Kerrie Meyler, MVP, MCSE, MCTS, CNA, MA, BA, is an independent consultant and trainer with over fifteen years of experience in IT. While at Microsoft in Field Technical Sales for four years she focused on infrastructure and mangement, presenting at numerous product launches. Kerrie has presented Operations Manager 2007 at TechEd 2007 and MMS 2009 and at internal Microsoft conferences, receiving company recognition and awards including a SPAR MGS award. Kerrie worked with Microsoft Learning to develop functional specifications for the original Operations Manager Microsoft courseware, 2550: Implementing Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 and did the beta teach for that course.She also participated in the alpha walkthrough for the 70-400: Configuring Microsoft System Center Operations Manager certification exam.
She is the lead author of Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Unleashed, Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed, and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 Unleashed. Kerrie is currently developing an eBook on Operations Manager 2007 R2.
Check out an excerpt from System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed, Chapter 3: Looking Inside OpsMgr.
Kerrie's latest book, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 Unleashed by Kerrie Meyler, Byron Holt, and Greg Ramsey has been selected as the August, 2009, Microsoft Subnet book giveaway (a $59.99 value). Check out an excerpt from System Center Configuration (SCCM) Manager 2007 Unleashed, Chapter 3: Looking Inside ConfigMgr.
Visit the Microsoft Subnet home page for giveaway details and entry forms.
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