TSC Weekender: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Jennifer Howze
04/29/00 - 08:55 AM EDT
Buffett is a badass once again. And columnist Christopher Edmonds is on hand at the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A Quote - Cramer on BRK.A - Stock Picks) annual meeting Saturday to see if this vaunted value investor passes the smell test. Also Saturday, TSC Weekender Comics returns with another Titan of Finance: Katrina Garnett. And Seattle still got you riled up? Then check in Sunday with the U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky to hear what she has to say about China and the WTO, in the TSC Streetside Chat. Hint: She thinks it's a good idea. How the Microsoft Have Fallen
Two potentially monopolistic monoliths are better than one. At least someone seems to think so.
All week the business world anticipated a proposal from federal prosecutors that
Microsoft (MSFT Quote - Cramer on MSFT - Stock Picks) be broken up into two pieces -- one selling the Windows operating system, the other, applications software such as the Office suite, which includes the word-processing and spreadsheet programs every office drone knows too well.
And while at least
one state was not unified with the federal government and the other states in the proposal, Friday the ax fell. The
Justice Department and 19 states urged a federal judge to cleave the mighty Microsoft in two to prevent it from violating antitrust law.
The company, naturally, disagreed with this assessment and proposal.
And investors had their own ideas throughout the week. Jitteriness over Mister Softee's future had the stock lurching down 15.6% Monday, amidst a general tech unraveling. But by the time Friday rolled around, the stock had stabilized. In regular trading, it closed down 1/16, a little less than 1%, at 69 3/4. After-hours trading Friday was mixed.
(For more information on the government's action against the Redmond, Wash. software giant, see our
Microsoft Trial Timeline.)
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