“I’ll make the same recommendation I have for the past year.
Microsoft should voluntarily submit a plan of divestiture, and
the government should accept it. A suitable break
up—OSes, applications and tools—would be a win for
Microsoft, consumers and investors. Gates said last week that
improvements Microsoft made in Windows raised the bar for
competitors—a good thing. Why shouldn’t the independent and
prosperous units of Microsoft have to work just as hard to succeed?
The sole result of keeping Microsoft intact would be to sustain the
monopoly.”
“A govern ment-ordered breakup would be a disaster. Microsoft,
which cannot risk such a course of action, would be wise to
orchestrate its own future rather than let someone else do it.
Given its track record in court and the uncertainty about who will
be the next president, out-politicking the DOJ is one of the
riskiest strategies for Microsoft.”