Running head: CASE 7 !1

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MICROSOFT V THE WORLD Marc Mattison Colorado Technical University

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Author Note This paper was prepared for [PHIL301], [CS13-01], taught by [Carolyn Geiser] on [October 20, 2013].

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MICROSOFT VS THE WORLD Long before Google was born and before Apple was the most powerful company in the world there was Microsoft. Microsoft was the leader in software, services and solutions. Unfortunately for the competition Microsoft didn’t seem to like to play fair or enjoy competition. Microsoft’s competitors constantly called its business practices both monopolistic and anticompetitive. With Microsoft bringing in annual revenues of more than $66 million a year, a strong case could be made that Microsoft’s competitors were absolutely right. Microsoft had a practice of selling Windows to original equipment manufacturers (OEMS) at a 60 percent discount if they agreed to pay Microsoft for every computer sold. Microsoft was using its large share of the market to squeeze out smaller companies. Then when Microsoft battled Apple Computer, Bill Gates threatened to stop making Apple compatible products if Apple didn’t stop developing competitive software. Eventually both Apple and Microsoft worked out their differences. So in 1998 Microsoft paid $150 million of non-voting stock in Apple and $100 million for access to Apple’s patents. Microsoft used its market power to force another competitor to play by its rules. Microsoft seemed to like bundling popular software with its operating systems, which would end up winning over the consumer and in turn made its competitors similar software unable to fairly compete. This began when it bundled Internet Explorer (web browser) into the Windows 95 operating system and later when it bundled Windows Media Player with its Windows 98 operating system. So once again thanks