“The market absolutely loves Judge Jackson’s Findings
of Fact. Since the Findings of Fact came out, the market in
general, and the Nasdaq in particular, have shot up, with the
Nasdaq setting record highs on a near daily basis. The Nasdaq is up
over 10% since Judge Jackson issued his ruling, and is up about 25%
since the Judge announced that he was shortly going to be
announcing his decision. This strong surge is in spite of the fact
that Microsoft itself, which makes up a very large chunk of the
Nasdaq index, is down about 8% since the ruling.”
“If you really look at what went into the case, Microsoft being
brought to heel can only be construed as a net benefit to consumer
choice, and by extension to free market capitalism. People have
argued in various places that there is some free market principle
that Microsoft is sticking up for in this litigation, but that’s
demonstrably false. When there is a profound, deeply held
underlying principle involved, a defendant in a lawsuit does not
feel a need to resort to dishonesty as the crux of his or its legal
defense — which is precisely what happened here.”
“…there is at least one neutral observer and weigher of
whether the consumer has been harmed. The market every day gives a
completely neutral analysis as to how companies should be valued,
an estimate which is ultimately an extension of how much value
companies are likely to be able to deliver to their customers.
The market is looking over all the information relevant to that
analysis, and today it sees companies as a whole being able to
deliver significantly more value to their customers in the future
than it looked like they could a couple of weeks ago.”