...1. Why was/were the firm(s) investigated for antitrust behavior? The Justice Department and the states believe that Microsoft has used its monopoly in operating system software to protect its dominance and eliminate competitors. The government says that in the long run, consumers will be harmed, because there will be less competition and fewer choices. More specifically, the government contends that Microsoft has engaged in actions to preserve its Windows monopoly that violate antitrust laws. The government also maintains that the company has used the power of its Windows monopoly to attempt to monopolize the market for Internet browsing software. In addition, government lawyers allege that the company has committed other anti-competitive acts. Microsoft contends that it is simply trying to innovate its products. The company contends that its actions are legal and says that there's no grounds of consumer indignation over the practices that the government is targeting. If the government wins at the trial court, it has already specified that it wants Microsoft to cancel contracts deemed exclusionary. In addition, the government wants Microsoft either to strip out its Internet browsing technology from Windows 98 or to include a rival browser made by Netscape Communications Corp. The plaintiffs alleged that Microsoft abused monopoly power on Intel-based personal computers in its handling of operating system sales and web browser sales. The issue central to the case was whether...
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...The Microsoft Case Sheriyl Robertson Shackemb@yahoo.com Content Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...page Subtitle 1 ……………………………….………………….………………………… page Subtitle 2 ……………………………….………………….………………………… page References………………………………………………………………………....... page Microsoft Monopoly Introduction In this paper I will discuss, why Microsoft was investigated for antitrust behavior? Present my opinion on if I agreed or disagreed the Microsoft was trying to gain monopoly power in the computer industry. Answer the question, “Are monopolies always bad”? And give an example of a case where having monopoly may be a good thing. Facts Microsoft produces the Window family of operating systems for personal computers and servers; also it produces applications software the run on the Windows family operating system. The most well-known are MS Office Suite which consists of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access; most of Microsoft products are complementary to members of the Windows family of operating systems for personal computers and servers. Microsoft was investigated for antitrust behavior after there were reports that Microsoft was abusing their position as the leading supplier of computer operating systems. Lawmakers investigated to see if Microsoft was trying to create a monopoly of the computer software market. They found that Microsoft was trying to cause a monopoly in the computer industry. Microsoft was sued by the US Department...
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...Why was/were the firm(s) investigated for antitrust behavior? Identify some of the costs (pecuniary and nonpecuniary) associated with the antitrust behavior (firms having power in the market). Additionally, note the specific antitrust act (Sherman Act, Clayton Act, etc.) under which the violation was investigated. Given your research and findings, are monopolies and oligopolies (firms demonstrating power) always bad for society? Be sure to provide real world examples of where this may be the case to strengthen your position. Provide at least one example of a case where having a monopoly or oligopoly may actually benefit the society. Based on your findings to the questions listed above, write a report with a minimum of 300 words in essay format in APA style (use the APA template in Doc Sharing), using correct economic terms covered in the discussions. If you ONLY write 300 words, you probably won’t be able to fully answer the questions. Key concepts to include in your paper include the following. Monopoly Market Structure Oligopoly Market Structure Barriers to Entry Into the Market Natural Monopoly Government Monopoly Downward Sloping Demand Curve Economies of Scale Price Fixing Collusion Monopoly Pricing Price Maker Market Power Economic Profits Imperfect Competition Rent-Seeking Behavior X-Inefficiency Deadweight Loss to Society Marginal Cost Marginal Revenue Antitrust You must use at minimum at least one article from the DeVry...
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...would try to enter the market in order to compete. This idea is the very basis of free market and capitalist economies. But sometimes there are situations where an individual will have a product or service that is better, cheaper, or quicker than everyone else; so much so that they are the only ones that can effectively provide it. When this occurs, competing businesses and giant government entities will stop at nothing to shut it down. The Sherman Antitrust Act, the Clayton Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act make up the current US antitrust laws. The antitrust laws are supposed to promote and protect competition. The philosophy behind the laws is that trusts and monopolies will stagnate markets and prevent others from engaging in healthy market competition. A monopoly is defined as a situation in which a single company owns all or nearly all of the market for a given type of product or service. (Investorwords, 2010) Antitrust law legislation started with the Sherman Act that was passed in 1890. The intent of the law was put in place to challenge the unchecked growth of corporations. By 1888, large corporations gained enough market muscle to dominate entire industries. The Sherman Act outlaws all contracts, combinations, and conspiracies that unreasonably restrain interstate trade. This includes agreements among competitors to fix prices, rig bids and allocate consumers. The Act also makes it a crime to monopolize any part of interstate commerce. Criminal prosecution...
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...The Microsoft Antitrust Case* by Nicholas Economides** Revised April 2, 2001 Abstract This paper analyzes the law and economics of United States v. Microsoft, a landmark case of antitrust intervention in network industries. The United States Department of Justice and 19 States sued Microsoft alleging (i) that it monopolized the market for operating systems of personal computers and took anti-competitive actions to illegally maintain its monopoly; (ii) that it attempted to monopolize the market for Internet browsers because such browsers would create competition for operating systems; (iii) that it bundled its browser (Internet Explorer) with Windows; and that it engaged in a number of other anti-competitive exclusionary arrangements with computer manufacturers, Internet service providers, and content providers attempting to thwart the distribution of Netscape’s browser. The District Court Judge found in most points for the plaintiffs and ordered the breakup of Microsoft into two companies, one with all the operating systems software, and one with all other products of the company. The District Court also imposed a number of severe restrictions on the business conduct of Microsoft. We analyze the economic issues related to liability. We also analyze the applicability and effectiveness of the remedies imposed by the District Court and contrast them with other potential remedies. * Forthcoming in Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade: From Theory to Policy (August 2001)...
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...The four Internet giants: Competition and antitrust regulation Maastricht University | | | | School of Business & Economics | | | | Place & date: | 18-01-13, Maastricht | | | | Name, initials: | Hiddema, M. | | For assessor only | | ID number: | I6019815 | | 1. Content | | Study: | Fiscal Economics | | 2. Language structure | | Course code: | EBC1011 | | 3. Language accuracy | | Group number: | 5 | | 4. Language: Format & citing/referencing | | Writing tutor name: | Martin Millband | | Overall: | Fail | Writing assignment: | Micro-participation Course Assignment | | Advisory grade | | | | | Assessor’s initials | BW | Your UM email address: m.hiddema@maastrichtuniversity.nl Table of contents 1. Introduction 3 2. The competitive model in the Internet market 4 3. Google 5 4. Facebook 7 5. Amazon 8 6. Apple 9 7. Conclusion 10 References 12 The four Internet giants: competition and antitrust regulations 1. Introduction The Economist (2012) reported that rivalry between the four Internet giants, which included Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, is increasing. All four giants have well-developed, powerful business models. Google has tied its search engine to the advertisement business while Facebook is connecting advertisements to the interests of people revealed on their Facebook page. Amazon started selling books at premium...
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...J O I N T C E N T E R AEI-BROOKINGS JOINT CENTER FOR REGULATORY STUDIES The Antitrust Economics of Two-sided Markets David S. Evans Related Publication 02-13 September 2002 David Evans is Senior Vice President, NERA Economic Consulting. The author is extremely grateful to Howard Chang, George Priest, Jean-Charles Rochet, Richard Schmalensee, and Jean Tirole for many helpful comments and suggestions and Irina Danilkina, Anne Layne-Farrar, Daniel Garcia Swartz, Bryan Martin-Keating, Nese Nasif, and Bernard Reddy for their many contributions to the research upon which article is based. The author has worked for a number of companies in the two-sided markets discussed in this paper including Bloomberg, Microsoft, and Visa. © David S. Evans 2002. Abstract “Two-sided” markets have two different groups of customers that businesses have to get on board to succeed—there is a “chicken-and-egg” problem that needs to be solved. These industries range from dating clubs (men and women), to video game consoles (game developers and users), to credit cards (cardholders and merchants), and to operating system software (application developers and users). They include some of the most important industries in the economy. Two-sided firms behave in ways that seem surprising from the vantage point of traditional industries, but in ways that seem like plain common sense once one understands the business problems they must solve. Prices do not and prices cannot follow marginal costs...
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...informationInformation Rules A STRATEGIC GUIDE TO THE NETWORK ECONOMY Carl Shapiro Hal R. Varian HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PRESS BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Copyright © 1999 Carl Shapiro and Hai R. Varian All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 03 02 01 00 99 5 Library of Congres§ Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shapiro, Carl. Information rules : a strategic guide to the network economy / Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87584-863-X (alk. paper) 1. Information technology—Economic aspects. 2. Information society. I. Varian, Hal R. II. Title. HC79.I55S53 1998 658.4'038—dc21 98-24923 GIF The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.49-1984. To Dawn, Eva, and Ben To Carol and Chris Contents Preface ix l The Information Economy 2 Pricing Information 19 3 Versioning Information 53 4 Rights Management 83 5 Recognizing Lock-In 103 6 Managing Lock-In 135 7 173 Networks and Positive Feedback 8 Cooperation and Compatibility 9 Waging a Standards War 10 Information Policy 227 261 297 viii I Contents Further Reading 319 Notes 327 Bibliography 329 Index 335 About the Authors 351 Preface Luck led us to write this book. Each of us became economists because we wanted to apply our ...
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...Information Rules A STRATEGIC GUIDE TO THE NETWORK ECONOMY Carl Shapiro Hal R. Varian HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PRESS BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Copyright © 1999 Carl Shapiro and Hai R. Varian All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 03 02 01 00 99 5 Library of Congres§ Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shapiro, Carl. Information rules : a strategic guide to the network economy / Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87584-863-X (alk. paper) 1. Information technology—Economic aspects. 2. Information society. I. Varian, Hal R. II. Title. HC79.I55S53 1998 658.4'038—dc21 98-24923 GIF The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.49-1984. To Dawn, Eva, and Ben To Carol and Chris Contents Preface ix l The Information Economy 2 Pricing Information 19 3 Versioning Information 53 4 Rights Management 83 5 Recognizing Lock-In 103 6 Managing Lock-In 135 7 Networks and Positive Feedback 173 8 Cooperation and Compatibility 227 9 Waging a Standards War 261 297 10 Information Policy viii I Contents Further Reading 319 Notes 327 Bibliography 329 Index 335 About the Authors 351 Preface Luck led us to write this book. Each of us became economists because we wanted to apply our analytical training to better understand...
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...jon24565_ch05.qxd 11/2/05 1:22 PM Page 138 C H A P T E R 5 Business Ethics and the Legal Environment of Business Learning Objectives After studying this chapter you should be able to: 1. Understand the relationship between ethics and the law and appreciate why it is important to behave ethically. 2. Differentiate between the claims of the different stakeholder groups affected by a company’s actions. 3. Identify the four main sources of business ethics, and describe four rules that can be used to help companies and their employees behave ethically. 4. Describe some methods companies can use to strengthen their ethical rules and positions. 5. Appreciate the important ways in which a nation’s business laws and regulations affect business commerce, occupations, and organizations. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT ? A friend who is an A-student has offered to write your paper, which is worth 25% of your grade, for $50. You need the course to graduate because you only have a low C average. You hate writing, do it very poorly, and know others have had good results submitting this student’s papers as their own. Will you pay the money and submit the paper or submit your own paper and pray for a good result? This chapter will help you learn how to act ethically when facing dilemmas in your business and personal life. This is important because the decisions you make will affect your own future and those of stakeholders of the organizations that...
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...CHAPTER 10 PERFECT COMPETITION Assumptions of Perfect Competition The most competitive market structure is pure or perfect competition, which is as competitive as possible. As previously mentioned, market structures are models that summarize how certain markets are organized and behave. For each market structure we have a set of assumptions or characteristics that tell us what kind of industries the model will explain. Only industries that meet the assumptions will behave in the way the model predicts. The assumptions of perfect competition are: Many buyers and sellers: There are so many buyers and sellers in perfect competition that no one of them has any influence whatsoever on the market. The number of consumers and producers is so great that any one of them is like a cup of water in the ocean – their presence or absence makes no difference at all to the market. Identical or homogenous product: Every producer in the market makes exactly the same product – consumers are not able to distinguish between the output of one firm and the output of another. There are no labels, brands or any other distinguishing features used to make a product look distinct. Excellent information: Both buyers and sellers in this market have good information about the product, especially the fact that there are many other producers all making the same product. Relatively free entry and exit: Firms are able to move resources in and...
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...jon24565_ch05.qxd 11/2/05 1:22 PM Page 138 C H A P T E R 5 Business Ethics and the Legal Environment of Business Learning Objectives After studying this chapter you should be able to: 1. Understand the relationship between ethics and the law and appreciate why it is important to behave ethically. 2. Differentiate between the claims of the different stakeholder groups affected by a company’s actions. 3. Identify the four main sources of business ethics, and describe four rules that can be used to help companies and their employees behave ethically. 4. Describe some methods companies can use to strengthen their ethical rules and positions. 5. Appreciate the important ways in which a nation’s business laws and regulations affect business commerce, occupations, and organizations. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT ? A friend who is an A-student has offered to write your paper, which is worth 25% of your grade, for $50. You need the course to graduate because you only have a low C average. You hate writing, do it very poorly, and know others have had good results submitting this student’s papers as their own. Will you pay the money and submit the paper or submit your own paper and pray for a good result? This chapter will help you learn how to act ethically when facing dilemmas in your business and personal life. This is important because the decisions you make will affect your own future and those of stakeholders of the organizations that...
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...C H A P T E R 5 Business Ethics and the Legal Environment of Business Learning Objectives After studying this chapter you should be able to: 1. Understand the relationship between ethics and the law and appreciate why it is important to behave ethically. 2. Differentiate between the claims of the different stakeholder groups affected by a company’s actions. 3. Identify the four main sources of business ethics, and describe four rules that can be used to help companies and their employees behave ethically. 4. Describe some methods companies can use to strengthen their ethical rules and positions. 5. Appreciate the important ways in which a nation’s business laws and regulations affect business commerce, occupations, and organizations. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT ? A friend who is an A-student has offered to write your paper, which is worth 25% of your grade, for $50. You need the course to graduate because you only have a low C average. You hate writing, do it very poorly, and know others have had good results submitting this student’s papers as their own. Will you pay the money and submit the paper or submit your own paper and pray for a good result? This chapter will help you learn how to act ethically when facing dilemmas in your business and personal life. This is important because the decisions you make will affect your own future and those of stakeholders of the organizations that employ you. A Question of Business How Different Ethical Stances Can Help or Harm...
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...A CORPORATE PROFILE About Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control. Food & Water Watch 1616 P St. NW, Ste. 300 Washington, DC 20036 tel: (202) 683-2500 fax: (202) 683-2501 info@fwwatch.org California Office 25 Stillman St., Ste. 200 San Francisco, CA 94107 tel: (415) 293-9900 fax: (415) 293-8394 info-ca@fwwatch.org www.foodandwaterwatch.org Copyright © 2013 by Food & Water Watch. All rights reserved. This report can be viewed or downloaded at www.foodandwaterwatch.org. A CORPORATE PROFILE Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Company History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Modern-Day Monsanto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Monsanto’s Environmental Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Market Share . . . . . . . . . . ....
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...Table of Contents Task 1 2 Different types of organizations and the purpose 2 1.1 Purpose of organization 2 1.2 Meeting Stakeholders objectives 4 1.3 The responsibilities that the Sainsbury organization has and the strategies they employ to meet these responsibilities. 6 Task 2 8 2.1 Different economic systems and resource allocation 8 2.2 Impact of fiscal and monetary policies in Business Organization 11 2.3 Impact of Competition policy and other regulatory mechanisms on the business 12 Task 3 14 Behaviour of Organisation in the Market Place 14 3.1 Market structure to determine the pricing and output decisions of businesses 14 3.2 Market forces shape organizational responses 15 3.3 The business and cultural environments shape the behaviour of an organization 16 Task 4 19 4.1 The significance of international trade to UK business organizations 19 4.2 The impact of global factors on UK business organizations 21 4.3 The impact of policies of the European Union on UK business organizations 25 Conclusion 28 References 29 Task 1 Different types of organizations and the purpose 1.1 Purpose of organization Before we learn about the types of organizations, we need to learn the basic purpose of setting organizations. The main purpose of organization is to provide a pathway to their business setup and to set the main objective for their business. Organizations help in making profit in a standard way. The different purpose of organizations...
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