Atlas Trail
When Antitrust Came for American Business
From the 1911 breakup of Standard Oil to the antitrust cases against IBM and Microsoft, and the eventual re-merger of two of Standard Oil's own descendants, this trail follows a single question across a century of American business: when does the government step in to break up a company that has grown too dominant, and what actually happens when it tries.
Stop 1 of 4.
Corporate Events
In 1911 the Supreme Court found Standard Oil an illegal monopoly and ordered it split into 39 separate companies, the founding precedent for every antitrust case that followed.
Stop 2 of 4.
Corporate Events
Eighty-eight years later, two of the companies born from that breakup, Exxon and Mobil, merged back together, a reminder that antitrust remedies do not always hold forever.
Stop 3 of 4.
Corporate Events
In 1969 the government tried the same remedy against IBM. Thirteen years later, with no trial verdict ever reached, it withdrew the case as without merit.
Stop 4 of 4.
Corporate Events
Three decades after that, the target was Microsoft. A court found real antitrust violations this time, but the ordered breakup was overturned on appeal, and the case ended in a conduct settlement instead.
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