Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Microsoft Monopoly
Assessment of Microsoft's Monopoly
Microsoft has for decades engaged in commercial activities both with its direct enterprise customers and its many distribution channel partners that could be considered monopolistic. While Microsoft has long asserted it is one of the most efficient competitors there are in an oligopolistically-based market of enterprise and consumer software, in reality its strategies and tactics show a pattern of deliberate monopolistic behavior (Information Management, 2009). Microsoft initially used complex contracts that defied legal interpretation to limit their Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) from installing any other operating system besides MS-DOS and later Microsoft Windows (Werden, 2001). At this same time Microsoft also devised a pricing strategy that made it economically impossible for its OEM customers including Dell, Gateway, IBM and many others from installing or even supporting any other operating system. Most recently Microsoft was fined by the European Union (EU) for bundling its Internet browser, Internet Explorer, with the Windows XP and later Windows 7 operating systems (Meese, 1999). Microsoft has been regularly investigated for antitrust violations, and this analysis includes an assessment of how the company became...
Also included is an assessment of how the company gained considerable strength as a monopolistic force in the computer software industry. The assessment concludes with an assessment of the good and bad aspects of monopolies from a more cross-industry perspective.
The Making of a Monopoly
Microsoft discovered early in their OEM sales of operating systems and development components that via the use of contracts that tied licenses to specific hardware units, the company could literally control their OEM partner's product strategies (Werden, 2001). Microsoft sought to create barriers to entry for operating systems and development tools as well, concentrating on their pricing, product strategies and bundling to redefine the demand curve for these programs faster than the market dynamics alone would create on their own time (Information Management, 2009). This forced a higher level of inelasticity in the market, driving competitors to attempt to imitate the economies of scale that Microsoft has. This had the long-term effect of creating an oligopolistic market and the short-term immediate effect of driving smaller, less-capitalized competitors out of the market. Microsoft also did this…
(Thomas a. Piraino, 2009) The particular case of Yahoo! rejecting Microsoft's claim did not constitute a real violation of any existing laws, though it does touch on some issues of ethics regarding company paid stockholders selling stocks during merger talks (which verges on insider trading) as well as ethical issues surrounding stockholder interests and deliberate actions that might devalue the company to make it less desirable to another. (Summative Assessment
IRAN POLITICAL OVERVIEW: The former Persia became present day Iran on April 1st 1979. Before that Persia was a Monarchy and its last ruler was Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi. He lost favor with the people and the religious clerics of the country. The clerics chose to exile Pahlavi and establish a theocracy. Theocracy refers to a government type where majority of decision making and political power is in the hands of
As one analyst points out: "it owns neither content nor the delivery mechanism. Though a global business, it has no geographical control anywhere in the world. Since nearly all its consumer services are free, it doesn't have the power to raise prices and has no ability to exclude competitors or somehow block access to competing services. It operates in an environment of healthy competition" (Ulanoff 2009). On the other
Target's chart, however, shows that the company has tracked the market and GDP fairly closely, indicating that perhaps it does not trade the way a discount retailer should. Johnson & Johnson JNJ is a pharmaceutical and consumer products company. It competes in pharmaceuticals, consumer products in the health and beauty segment and in medical devices. The company was founded in 1886 and today is a multinational conglomerate with operations in 57
Organizational Analysis of Google Google is a high-tech organization with appealing rates of growth beneficial to shareholders. Inherent with its development, Google faces notable challenges. This study will focus on the situation facing the company besides exploring the competition it faces from rival firms in the industry. This study also provides positive and feasible recommendations for the leaders of the organization to consider. Besides the issues facing the company, the outstanding
Internet and Democracy In one sense, computers and the Internet are just a continuation of the communications revolution, starting with the printing press then continuing with the telegraph, telephone, motion pictures, radio and television. Could this be leading to a more fundamental change in history on the same level as the agricultural and industrial revolutions? This is a more problematic proposition. Of course, the idea of a post-industrial economy based on