“In a significant new twist to the landmark Microsoft antitrust
case, one of the computer industry’s most prominent trade groups is
endorsing the breakup of Microsoft Corp. in a secret 40-page report
circulated among its board and sent to government lawyers.
The Software and Information Industry Association proposed what
some legal experts describe as the ‘death-penalty’ for Microsoft —
splitting it up into companies selling separate products, such as
Windows software, business programs and Internet content, or
breaking it up into three or four ‘Baby Bills’ or ‘Mini-Microsofts’
each with identical product lines.
It said a mandatory breakup of Microsoft ‘deserves the most
careful attention of the government and the court.’ But it doesn’t
distinguish which breakup plan it recommends, calling it a
‘Hobson’s choice’ and ‘ultimately an antitrust policy question with
no clear answer.'”