Slashdot Mirror
Continuing Twists In Microsoft, Intel Cases
An Anonymous Coward writes: "New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer and California Attorney General Bill Lockyer have threatened to pursue their own sanctions against Microsoft if they conclude that the Justice department isn't being tough enough. Amongst other things, they demand that Windows XP "receive close scrutiny in arriving at a judicially ordered remedy. Go NY!"" NaughtyusMaximus points us to this message at Anandtech about Via reacting to Intel's patent-infringement suit by turning around and suing Intel -- for patent infringement -- in Taiwan and the U.S.. Via is also countersuing Intel in England.
It's not an issue. MS is being sued in a single Federal court case by the DOJ AND several States. The multiple jurisdiction rule does not apply. As parties to the suit, the various States do have a say in what any settlement is.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I would flame you really hard but you admitted that you are clueless so I'll restrain myself. First, the stock market is NOT a zero-sum game like you seem to imply. If VA Linux sold yesterday for $2 per share and today no one in the world wants to sell for $2 per share then the stock price will move up. No one has "lost" anything, except of course the short sellers and there are never enough short sellers to exceed the people actually long the stock because someone has to be long before you can sell. Options and futures are a whole different story, those ARE a zero sum game. Someone "won" a dollar for every dollar you "lost".
Also, breaking up Microsoft would destroy wealth, not create it. One obvious loss is that the three "baby Bills" would have to hire redundant workers. Microsoft had only one CFO but now they would have to have three. The end result is wasted money on wages with net increase in GNP, a loss for everyone.
And you seem to think that people can magically pull their money out of Microsoft. If a billion shares hit the sell at once think what would happen to the share price?? Also, Microsoft is only worth $308 billion BECAUSE it is a business. If you look at their SEC filings you'll see they only have about $30 billion in assets. The rest is mark up on future expected business. So destruction of the company would destroy $270 billion in wealth.
I could go on and on but I'm sure you have a better understanding now.