LA Times: Legal Battle Takes Glow Off Microsoft Aura

[ Thanks to Paul
Eggert for this link. ]

“Whether the Microsoft monopoly gets broken up by federal
trustbusters, many technology experts now believe the company has
entered a legal bog from which it can never emerge as strongly as
it entered. Even if the world’s largest software firm prevails
on appeal, analysts say, protracted litigation may push the
once-dominant company toward irrelevance in a technology world it
helped to create.”

“The massive uncertainty [caused by the antitrust trial] causes
Microsoft to lose control over its customers and causes its
employees to lose confidence in their direction,” said Rob Enders,
an analyst with Gig[a] Information Group. “Even Microsoft’s
partners will look around for companies that they can trust
more.”

“Even so… Microsoft will not go quietly. … “I don’t
subscribe to the notion that Microsoft is a wounded beast,” he
[Liberate Technologies chief executive Mitchell Kertzman] said.
“It’s like saying organized crime is not effective in the 21st
century. They can still do a lot of damage. Microsoft is still a
mighty company, with a huge market valuation, a mountain of cash,
and software monopolies–assets that give them powerful
leverage.”

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