Corporate Events
Microsoft Antitrust Case
Also Known As United States v. Microsoft Corp.
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The Microsoft antitrust case, formally United States v. Microsoft Corp., was a landmark federal lawsuit filed by the United States Department of Justice in 1998 accusing Microsoft of illegally maintaining a monopoly in the personal computer operating system market by bundling its Internet Explorer web browser with Windows and restricting computer manufacturers from removing it or promoting rival browsers. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the finding that Microsoft had violated antitrust law while overturning an order to break the company into two separate businesses. Microsoft settled with the Department of Justice in 2001, agreeing to share its application programming interfaces with third party companies and to submit to outside monitoring of its compliance for five years.
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Did the Microsoft antitrust case break up the company?
No. Although a federal district court initially ordered Microsoft split into separate operating systems and applications businesses, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned that breakup order while still finding that Microsoft had violated antitrust law. The case was resolved in 2001 through a settlement in which Microsoft remained a single company but agreed to share technical interfaces with competitors and accept outside monitoring of its conduct.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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