I was wondering when the cries of "where's our money" regarding Friday's Microsoft antitrust settlement would hit. Sure, there was the requisite moaning from the leftist so-called consumer advocates and insane anti-Microsoft cultists as soon as the settlement was announced, but they were drowned out by the stock market rally. As tech stock guru James K. Glassman pointed out, Microsoft was not the sole beneficiary of the good news. Even the most intense enemies of Microsoft (AOL, Sun and Oracle) had their stock prices go up an average of 5.4 percent the day before the settlement was announced. Microsoft went down slightly on Friday, but spiked almost two dollars higher Monday as AOL, Sun and Oracle continued to rise.

Of course that did not stop AOL, Sun, Oracle and their fellow leftist competitors from screaming that a reward rather than a remedy had been handed to Microsoft. There was no magnanimous statement from any of Microsoft's competitors. Instead, most continued their "Micro$oft continues to be an evil monopoly that hates their customers and gives them no choice" diatribes and lobbied for the states to reject the antitrust settlement. All of the critics of the Microsoft settlement have repeated the same thing: "This does not punish Microsoft enough."

Why would they all level this same criticism at Microsoft? Well, have you heard any of the non-profit "consumer rights" organizations or AOL/Sun/Oracle flacks say: "We're doing this on principle alone. We are only worried about how a monopolist can bully an entire industry and we don't care about the money"? Sure, that's been their whole argument for years: "We just want Microsoft to play fair with us." Consider this: Why are the so-called consumer groups and Microsoft competitors so incensed about Microsoft's settlement? Was it because Real Networks and AOL could not place their products' desktop icons in Windows XP? Was it because Microsoft would not have to show any of their proprietary source code to their competitors? No, because Microsoft will have to do all of that according to the settlement. No, these competitors are mad because they did not get any money from Microsoft.

Ask yourself: Who pays for these non-profit organizations to spout the standard anti-Microsoft party line for years to the New York Times and CNET media outlets? That money trail leads to AOL, Sun and Oracle. One particularly despicable "consumer advocate" group in Washington, DC called "The Project to Promote Competition and Innovation in the Digital Age," (ProComp) proudly lists their big money contributors: the American Society of Travel Agents, Computer & Communications Industry Association, Preview Travel, The Air Transport Association, the SABRE Group (who are all worried that Expedia Ñ a Microsoft owned Internet travel agency Ñ would cut into their business), Corel, AOL-Netscape Communications Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Sun Microsystems and Sybase are all "supporting" ProComp in their fight against Microsoft. There are also "[a] number of other companies and organization [sic] [that] are also working with or supporting ProComp but do not choose to be publicly identified at this time." Can you imagine the outcry if a pro-Microsoft organization did not choose to have all of their supporters publicly identified?"

Ask yourself: What would be the worst kind of settlement for the states that filed the antitrust suit against Microsoft? A settlement where Microsoft doesn't have to pay the hundreds of millions in court fees that the states incurred while filing suit against Microsoft. A settlement that didn't pay a couple of billion dollars in restitution to the attorneys general in the stubborn states (only New Mexico was smart enough to realize their mistake) that didn't drop their antitrust suits when they had a chance would be pretty bad for these states. These states assumed that Microsoft was somehow stealing revenue from their states' businesses, which translates into less tax revenue, which turns into less money for state AG department salaries. You bet the state attorneys general are mad about the settlement Ñ they want what they consider "their" money from Microsoft!

I'm not saying there is some vast conspiracy against Microsoft, but I am saying that there is a lot of hypocrisy in the: "We don't care about the money, but where's our money?" statements from the anti-Microsoft crowd. These guys were never interested in Microsoft "playing fair." AOL, Sun and Oracle were unable to make the same amount of money Microsoft has and cried foul. These companies wanted the quick and dirty cash from the antitrust suit settlement. The state AGs wanted cash from an antitrust settlement. Even the non-profits wanted their cut of what they thought would be one of the biggest monetary settlements in history. If AOL pays your non-profit advocacy group thousands to constantly whine about how Microsoft doesn't let AOL's products compete in the market place via their monopolistic stranglehold, you cannot tell me your group would not have benefited from a big money settlement from Microsoft to AOL. You could tell me that, but anyone born under a blue sky knows you'd be lying.

So, do you still believe these companies and organizations when you hear them whimpering that it's not about the money? Get real; it's all about the money!

What are your thoughts about this issue? Email me scott@worldtechtribune.com with your opinions and comments. <>

Print this Article

Email this article

Free Headline Alerts