Did Microsoft do what it was accused of doing? Probably. Will dividing a “monopoly” into two “monopolies” spur innovation? Perhaps. Will consumers benefit from the breakup? Hard to say.
For a big deal, it’s really not that big a deal. The market place is moving faster than the halls of justice. Microsoft faces many technological and competitive challengers, including AOL-Time Warner, Sun Microsystems, the Linux upstarts, Apple.
By the time Microsoft exhausts its appeals, maybe the landscape will be so different that the final ruling on whether the company remains in one piece or becomes two will be irrelevant.
