Antitrust Excitement in the New Millennium: Microsoft, Mergers, and More

Abstract

This article responds to the fundamental issues surrounding antitrust regulation in the new millennium as punctuated by Microsoft’s ongoing enforcement battle. As a threshold matter, antitrust law may be old, but it is not outdated. Although the marketplace for competitive frogs has certainly dramatically changed, the need for competition protection has not. To evaluate the future of antitrust enforcement, this article begins with an overview of the law’s development and application, including the cyclical nature of and the economic explanations for antitrust regulation. Part II describes the special challenges facing antitrust law in today’s dynamic marketplace, given the new economy’s features and the competition pressures imposed by mergers and globalization. Building upon an appreciation of both the historical context and the modern dilemmas, Part III presents the Microsoft story, which weaves together the relevant issues underlying antitrust enforcement and highlights the tensions concerning its future. As a backdrop for the Microsoft experience, the article also provides summaries of the AT&T and IBM antitrust investigations, which provide starting similarities under comparable circumstances. Finally, Part IV evaluates the future of antitrust enforcement, in light of the changing political climate and the rapidly evolving, high-tech economy. Part IV concludes that frogs will compete very nicely in the new millennium pond under the current regulatory regime, if this regime is properly applied.

Keywords: Antitrust, FDR, Microsoft, AT&T, IBM, antitrust laws, fraud, frogs