Economists\' assessment of Antitrust policies at best are mixed. Two different c

Question

Economists' assessment of Antitrust policies at best are mixed. Two different cases; ALCOA and Standard Oil in the 20th century ended up with different outcomes. Most agree that the prosecution of the former went too far, while the prosecution of the latter paved the way for a competitive U.S. business environment. In 21st Century AT&T was broken up, but Microsoft was not. Why do you think the Justice Department has such a difficult time in applying uniformly punishment to firms across the board that have been found guilty of violating the Antitrust laws, in essence making its prosecution tantamount to selective administration of justice?

Explanation / Answer

AT&T was a monopoly that was founded almost 100 years ago, It was state sponsored monopoly which was aimed at providing services to all nation. It however has to be broken up to avoid monopoly later on.

Microsoft on other hand is a company that make operating systems, It has several competitors including Linux, Apple and now google operating systems.

Microsoft must not be broken up due to various reasons

1) It is truly a global company, 99% of worlds computers run on its Operating system and certainly US has no control on trade beyond its borders.

2) Microsoft products face competition anyway, Software industry in general is very competitive and clearly microsoft is not leader in any other product except OS,

3) Host of companies compete to develop various products and only very few products survive stiff competition, so killing such companies does more harm than good.

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