Thread by @mariogabriele

[Better late than never!]

With Fortnite confronting Apple and Google, monopolies are front of mind. Today's thread tells the story of the industry's most famous anti-trust case:

The US v. Microsoft.

It's the tale of a "jihad" for the soul of tech.

Today, there's something delightfully affable about Bill Gates. The grandfatherly hair, stooped shoulders, a precise, nasal voice, waxing about some good he will do.

It was not always so. The Gates of the previous millennium was a ruthless, unsentimental competitor.

In the early '90s, a worthy competitor had emerged.

For all his vision, head perennially on a swivel, Gates was caught out by the Internet. When the Mosaic browser arose — the brainchild of Marc Andreessen among others — he paid little attention.

Even when much of that team created Netscape — a commercial venture — the idea barely registered.

Consider roads not taken.

When Jim Clark and Andreessen first met, they didn't outline a web browser but a gaming system. They even contacted Nintendo in the hopes of partnering.

Had the N64 been ready to release in '95 rather than '96, we might remember Andreessen as a video game mogul, rather than a browser-forefather.

Whatever sliding door once stood open, by 1994 Netscape had been founded. Within months they'd devoured 75% of the browser market.

Less than a year after launch, the company IPO'd.

On August 9, 1995 Netscape popped from $28/share to $75. The next 6 month saw the company surpass $100/share and coin the term "Netscape moment" to refer to a breakout success.

Starting in the summer of '95, Gates started paying attention.

A now infamous internal memo, titled "The Internet Tidal Wave" outlined the paradigm shift the web represented.

"I assign the Internet the highest level of importance," Gates noted.

wired.com/2010/05/0526bi…

For all the bad press FB receives for its proclivity to borrow and steal, they may pale in comparison to MSFT.

Gates's company was a serial killer. First, there was WordPerfect — knifed by Word. Next came Lotus — sniped by Excel.

Could Netscape escape the MSFT apex predator?

No.

At one point, Netscape held 90% of the browser market, but it didn't last. Leveraging the same basic technology the Mosaic project had used, MSFT released it's competitor:

Internet Explorer (IE).

It was terrible. But then came versions 2, 3, 4. It got better quickly.

It's hard to overstate just how seriously Microsoft took this browser war, even referring to it as a "jihad." They coerced a weakened Apple to preload IE over Netscape.

Most importantly, they began bundling IE into the Windows OS, ingraining it deeply into the system.

Given Windows' position as the market's dominant OS, that equated to a death sentence for Netscape; Microsoft owned the roads, only sanctioned vehicles could pass.

For years, Netscape lobbied for the government to intervene. It was a tricky request.

How can a company say, "if you don't help us, we'll die," without spooking shareholders?

Netscape resorted to a confidential memo, shared with the Justice Department. A white folder with bright red lettering.

It's contents worked.

Three years after Netscape went public, the Justice Department filed a suit against Microsoft for anticompetitive behavior.

At the helm, was the dapper, mercurial David Boies. Hailed as a "mad genius," Boies has something of a checkered history.

If there is an Almighty that weighs our sins and good deeds after death, extra-time will be required to assess Boies.

He argued against CA's same-sex marriage ban, represented Big Tobacco, served accusers of Epstein, defended Weinstein, and sat on the board of Theranos.

He was at his best in his deposition of Gates.

It's reassuring to know that even geniuses occasionally look ridiculous under pressure. A deft Boies lures Gates into absurd quibbles.

What does the word 'concerned' mean?, Gates asks. How about 'ask'?

When played in court, it appeared equally risible.

But if Gates' performance prompted laughs, a stack of internal company emails provoked a sterner look.

"Crush them" one said. "Take away their oxygen supply."

By the end of 1999, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson was ready to share his opinion.

In an astonishing decision, the Reagan appointee called Gates "unethical," a modern-day "Napoleon."

The upshot was clear. MSFT was in trouble.

It only got worse.

The following year, Jackson agreed to the government's proposed solution: MSFT had to be broken up, split into two pieces.

There would be an "OpsCo" handling the company's OS activities, and an "AppCo" managing the applications business.

The phrase, "Decide at pace, repent at leisure," comes to mind when thinking about what followed.

Jackson must have been sick of the sound of the name "Microsoft" because he decided not to have a hearing following his decision to confirm the government's remedy.

Unusual.

"He was just basically saying, 'I’m tired of the case,'" one observer noted, "That was irresponsible."

By failing to complete this final step, Jackson opened up an angle for an appeal.

Suddenly, the net that captured MSFT had a hole in it.

The DC Court of Appeals overturned Jackson's opinion. On September 6, 2001, the DOJ announced they were no longer pursuing MSFT.

A deal was cut — MSFT agreed to an independent oversight board, and to allow PC manufacturers to adopt independent software.

It would be a mistake to say that MSFT wasn't chastened by the experience, though.

In the years that followed, the company lost some of its viciousness. While the MSFT of old might have tried to neuter Google's rise, a more agreeable iteration stepped back, fearful of backlash.

We'll have to see what happens when Fortnite, Apple, and Google step into the arena.

Will we see similar obfuscation and chest-beating from today's behemoths? Or will a gentler tack be taken?

Whatever the case, we should not be surprised if the real change comes not from the judicial branch, but the court of public opinion.

If #freefortnite is any indication, many ballots have already been cast.

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