Gates closed on Microsoft

There seems to be no end to Microsoft's troubles. Now, the US Supreme Court has rejected Microsoft's request to overturn a unanimous Appeals Court ruling that the software giant violated US antitrust laws. Earlier, in a landmark ruling, the US Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson agreed with the Department Of Justice (DoJ) and ordered that the company must be split into two as punishment for violating the US anti-trust laws. In addition, the judge declared Microsoft as an untrustworthy monopoly that refuses to abandon dubious business practices that crush competitors and harm consumers.

Microsoft's scrap with DoJ has been going on for a long time now. Not surprisingly, as a result, the company is getting a lot of bad press. But surprisingly this ongoing scrap has had no apparent effect on its sales. Just look at its results for the last 12 quarters. It has beaten the expectations of the analysts everytime by showing sizzling growth in revenues as well as profits. And this has been achieved inspite of the economic crisis which engulfed the whole of Asia till very recently and which hit the earnings of a number of other IT vendors.

The most interesting thing about the whole scenario is that Microsoft bashing has become a sort of game in the US. And DoJ was not the only one which played this game. The Council for a Competitive Electronic Marketplace, a coalition of companies and lobbyists, was also reported to be secretly plotting against the company. Apparently, the coalition had been formed to convince the courts, the executive and the general public that Microsoft was not playing a fair game, specially in the browser market. Backers of this effort which wanted Microsoft to remove Internet Explorer from Windows, included names like Sun Microsystems and the erstwhile Netscape.

On its part, Microsoft was also not sitting idle. Rather, it hired as many as nine lobbying firms to make sure that its road to prosperity remained as smooth as ever. On the other hand, anti-Microsoft forces had hired some big names including Bob Dole, the Republican top boss who lost to Bill Clinton in the Presidential elections.

The company's uncompromising stance in defending itself against DoJ charges that it abused its market position makes it likely that the antitrust battle will drag on for quite a long time. Microsoft is determined to take the battle to the higher courts which means the final decision on this case is still a long way off. And till that final decision comes, it is highly unlikely that the company will show a slide in its growth.