Antitrust Cry From Microsoft
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The wheel of technology history turns remarkably fast. Microsoft, whose domination of the technology industry provoked a landmark federal antitrust case, is crying foul against Google and urging European Union antitrust officials to go after the search giant.
Microsoft plans to file a formal antitrust complaint on Thursday in Brussels against Google, its first against another company. Microsoft hopes that the action may prod officials in Europe to take action and that the evidence gathered may also lead officials in the United States to do the same.
In Europe, Microsoft is joining a chorus of complaints, but until now they have come mainly from small Internet companies saying that Google's search engine unfairly promotes its own products, like Google Product Search, a price comparison site, over rival offerings.
The Internet and smartphones are the markets where energy, investment and soaring stock prices reside. Microsoft, still immensely wealthy, is pouring billions into these fast-growing fields, especially Internet search. Yet the champion of the PC era trails well behind Google.
"The company that was the 800-pound gorilla is now resorting to antitrust, where it is always the case that the also-rans sue the winners," said Michael A. Cusumano, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management who has studied Microsoft.
The Microsoft complaint, Professor Cusumano notes, is also a reminder of the comparative speed with which fortunes can shift in fast-moving technology markets. "It doesn't happen instantly, but it does happen faster than in most industries," Professor Cusumano said. "It took Google about a decade to really turn the tables on Microsoft."
For years, the swaggering giant of personal computer software battled competitors and antitrust regulators in America and abroad, parrying their claims that it had bullied rivals and abused its market muscle. In the United States, it suffered rulings against it and in 2001 reached a settlement that prohibited Microsoft from certain strong-arm tactics. In Europe, Microsoft absorbed setbacks and record fines from regulators and judges.
First Published April 1, 2011 12:00 am
