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The next monopoly?

Whatever the next antitrust battle over techology is, it probably won't involve Microsoft and Starbucks.
Achim Hepp
/
flickr.com
Whatever the next antitrust battle over techology is, it probably won't involve Microsoft and Starbucks.

Microsoft is appealing a $1.3 billion fine from European antitrust regulators. But its antitrust worries in the United States appear to be over. The consent decree with the US Justice Department expired May 11th. A lot has changed since Microsoft crushed Netscape in the browser wars of the 1990s. This month on The Digital Future, Strategic News Service publisher Mark Anderson says Microsoft has transformed itself into a much better corporate citizen.

Mark credits CEO Steve Ballmer for Microsoft's change in behavior, saying Ballmer achieved "a brand conversion from one of being a feared and often disliked or hated company, to one of being a well liked and respected and honored company around the world. That would have been impossible in anybody's marketing book, and Steve did it."

You can read more about Mark's views on Steve Ballmer in Sharon Pian Chan's article in the Seattle Times.

As Microsoft's antitrust issues are winding down, where will the next battle be? It's hard to tell, but Mark says to keep an eye on on Apple and Amazon:

Maybe we should expect to see monopolies in certain kinds of content and distribution. Maybe we should expect to see that Amazon owns books, and maybe Apple owns media...that kind of thing.

Dave Meyer has been anchoring KNKX news shows since 1987. He grew up along the shores of Hood Canal near Belfair and graduated from Washington State University with degrees in communications and psychology.
Mark Anderson is the CEO of the Strategic News Service® (SNS), www.stratnews.com. SNS was the first subscription-based newsletter on the Internet, and is read by Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Mark Hurd, and industry leaders and investors in computing and communications worldwide. Mark is the founding chair of the Future in Review® (FiRe) Conference, which the Economist has labeled “the best technology conference in the world,” as well as of SNS Project Inkwell, the first global consortium to address technology design changes for one-to-one computing in classrooms. He is the founder of two software companies, a hedge fund, and the Washington Technology Industry Association “Fast Pitch” investment forum, Washington’s premier technology investment conference.