Lest we forget that the case against Microsoft was made by other
large corporations and various government entities, here’s a look
at how corporations like AOL Time Warner are continuing their
lobbying efforts against Microsoft.
“As federal and state prosecutors ponder what to do next with
Microsoft, they have already come under enormous lobbying pressure
from the company to settle quickly and from its rivals, most
notably AOL Time Warner, to continue litigating.”“The lobbying campaign was in full swing even before Thursday’s
decision by a federal court of appeals here, which vacated the
order to break up Microsoft but also found that the company had
engaged in a raft of anticompetitive practices in violation of the
Sherman Antitrust Act. It is now expected to intensify and to
become, for the city’s cadre of lawyers and lobbyists, one of the
most lucrative fights of the year.”“With no one in the government in clear control of a policy
toward Microsoft, the company and AOL Time Warner, along with their
surrogates, have been fiercely campaigning in Congress and before
regulators in a largely behind-the-scenes battle over Microsoft’s
new operating system, Windows XP. But the campaigns have been
closely related to the antitrust lawsuit, with both sides employing
large teams of prominent law firms and lobbyists in the hopes of
putting pressure on the Justice Department and state
officials.”
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