IBM Faces DOJ Antitrust Inquiry On Mainframes

Several sources are reporting that IBM is facing an antitrust inquiry from the US Department of Justice due to a supposed refusal to issue mainframe OS licenses to competitors. "Part of CCIA's complaint stems from the tech giant's treatment of former competitor Platform Solutions. IBM had little competition in the mainframe market when Platform Solutions, early this decade, began work on servers that could mimic the behavior of more expensive IBM mainframes, CCIA said. Platform Solutions, based on past mainframe agreements between IBM and the DOJ, requested copies of IBM's OS and technical information under a licensing agreement. IBM declined to grant Platform Solutions a license and prohibited customers from transferring IBM software licenses to Platform Solutions machines, said CCIA, which has members that are potential competitors of IBM."

Comments

Re:Bad news for Apple?

[intheshelter]

I think you misunderstand what the word monopoly means. Just about every manufacturer has a monopoly on their hardware if you take it to mean they are the only ones that manufacture that product. Toyota, Caterpillar, General Electric, everyone basically falls under that umbrella. But when you're talking about a monopoly in terms of a MARKET then Apple most certainly does not have a monopoly. There are tons of options in the personal computer market.