David Rosenthal: evaluation

Transcript context

…Theoretically, double jeopardy is not a thing. In fact, several members of the FTC commission opposed this whole process and tried to refuse to turn over their notes to the Justice Department. But nonetheless, the DOJ proceeds, and the next year in July 1994, Microsoft just settles with them rather than going to trial. They’re like, all right, look. We just want to be done. We are going to settle with you DOJ. We’re going to be done with the US federal government here. In that settlement, they agree to enter into what folks may know, the famous words, a consent decree. That means they consent in this case, that they are not going to tie the sale of Microsoft application products to the sale of Windows. Meaning they can’t say like, hey OEMs or businesses or consumers or whoever, if you’re buying Windows, you have to also buy Office or X or whatever else that we’re selling in our applications group. Importantly, as part of the consent decree, they remain free and clear Microsoft does to integrate additional features into the Windows operating system. Which brings us right back to Internet Explorer. Is it a product or is it a feature? Exactly. This is so messy because I think, David, you just used the exact language, which is they cannot tie these application products in a bundled sale. However, they absolutely can integrate new features.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.