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By Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 8, 2000
ATLANTA -- The federal judge's order Wednesday to split Microsoft in two is expected to have little immediate impact on consumers and companies that use its software.
At Supercomm 2000, a telecommunications trade show in Atlanta, most people visiting the software behemoth's pavilion said they were confident that Windows, the operating system family that runs on nearly 90 percent of the world's personal computers, will continue to dominate for some time. Business leaders at the pavilion said they had no plans to stop making their products compatible with Windows.
"I've been in this industry a long time, and you'd be foolish to (stop developing products for Windows). NT is a great play," said Mark Rubin of Phonetic Systems, referring to a Microsoft network-oriented system widely used by large companies.
Rubin's company, based in Burlington, Mass., makes voice recognition systems for corporate telephone directories that run on Windows NT.
Microsoft employees working at the company's pavilion said plenty of people mentioned the legal battle with the government's antitrust regulators, but not out of concern about whether to invest in Windows-based products.
"Nobody is saying, "I won't go with this because of the whole DOJ thing,' " said Hans Hoffman, a Microsoft exhibitor. "I get asked all the time what I think will happen, but it's on a personal level, like how's the mood at the company, not in terms of the ramifications of the decision."
That lack of concern may be because Microsoft's expected appeal could drag on for up to two years. And even if Microsoft loses, it would take a while for the actual breakup to produce real change in market dynamics.
Also, technology changes so quickly that by the time the case is finally resolved the entire computing landscape will be different. Everyone expects Microsoft to continue to adapt.
Initially, one of the two companies created in the breakup would make Windows operating systems while the other would produce programs like the Microsoft Office suite of business applications.
Only then would the market begin to evolve.
"Tomorrow morning at 9o'clock, what is different? If you are an information technology manager are you going to change a buying decision? Probably not," said Barry Jaruzelski, a partner specializing in computing with the Booz-Allen & Hamilton consulting firm.
Jaruzelski noted that companies working with Microsoft have long been aware of the legal backdrop and have factored it into their planning.
Andrew Harding, an exhibitor for Unisys at the Microsoft pavilion, said the court decision "won't affect us that much" and that everyone in the industry is pretty much sticking with Windows.
Unisys, a leading producer of business systems for corporations, was demonstrating one of its top-end mainframe computers, running the industrial-strength Windows 2000 Data Center operating system that is due for release in September.
Michael Cohen, co-manager of a mutual fund called Alpha Analytics Digital Future Fund, said that for investors, Wednesday's ruling is not even a factor: "If I was a product buyer, I know my supply is going to be unaffected for the near future."
Industry experts were more divided on what the decision will mean for consumers' pocketbooks.
"We think prices will come down over time because Microsoft will face more competition," said Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America, a non-profit group.
Microsoft was guilty of "plain old dirty business practices" that will stop now, resulting in more and cheaper choices for consumers, he said.
But Hillard Sterling, an antitrust lawyer with a Chicago firm that specializes in information technology cases, said the ruling would not help consumers because Microsoft did nothing to harm them.
"The facts and law simply do not support such an extreme judicial remedy," he said. "There is no evidence that a breakup will lead to lower prices or more products."