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Microsoft's Power Over Operating System and Softwares

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I need some help with this question:

Is Microsoft a monopoly? Why or why not? If it is not now, was it ever? If it is, should it be broken up?

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Solution Summary

The solution settles the issue of Microsoft as a monopoly. It traces the success of the software giant in the 1990s and its eventual legal woes.

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In the 1990s, Microsoft (MS) captured the entire software market. It monopolized the industry completely. The company became so confident that it bundled its operating system with its own internet browser - Internet Explorer. Computer users who wanted to use a browser other than Microsoft's, found conflicting files with the MS operating system causing non-Microsoft browsers to fail.

Operating system users sued the company for anti-trust practices.

Economides (2011) records that the 1998 case against Microsoft springs from the following allegations:
1. Microsoft illegally monopolized the operating systems market for personal computers ("PCs") under Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act;
2. Microsoft had anti-competitive contractual arrangements with various vendors of related goods, such as with computer manufacturers ("OEMs") and Internet Service Providers ("ISPs"), and had taken other actions to preserve and enhance its monopoly; that these contractual arrangements and other actions were illegal under Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act;
3. Microsoft ...

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