Microsoft's ambitions are anything but small. The world's #1 software company provides a variety of products and services, including its Windows operating systems and Office Suite software. The company has expanded into markets such as video game consoles, interactive television, and Internet access. With its core markets maturing, Microsoft is targeting services for growth, looking to transform its software applications into Web-based services for enterprises and consumers. Microsoft has reached a tentative settlement to end an ongoing antitrust investigation, agreeing to uniformly license its operating systems and allow manufacturers to include competing software with Windows

When it rains, it pours. The Associated Press headline and story lead-in of January 2001, announcing Jackson v. Microsoft, must have caused the hearts of anti-trust-weary Microsoft supporters to skip a beat: “New Trouble for Microsoft: Software Giant Facing Discrimination Suit. The suit . . . asks for 5 billion” (New trouble, 2001). Just a few months earlier, the NewsFactor Network announced another discrimination suit, Donaldson v. Microsoft, with the potential for damages in the billions of dollars.

But appearances can deceive. In Donaldson v. Microsoft, the court concluded that the plaintiffs “failed to establish the existence of a class of persons sharing any common claim of discrimination.” In addition, the court stated, they failed “to come forward with some evidence of either disparate treatment or disparate impact arising from the implementation of the [evaluation ratings] system”, the issue at the center of the plaintiff’s allegations (Donaldson v. Microsoft, 2001, p. 11). The Jackson v. Microsoft case, on the other hand, was never decided on its merits because of a successful motion to dismiss by Microsoft. But in view of the close similarity of the two cases and the fact that both were heard in the same court, it appeared reasonable to assume the likelihood of a similar outcome. In Microsoft’s words, “the court concluded that the plaintiffs did not demonstrate that there was any pattern or practice of race or gender discrimination at Microsoft” (Microsoft’s response, 2001).

Microsoft Lawsuit Pits Johnnie Cochran vs. Bill Gates: Two of the most influential teams of attorneys practicing in the civil rights arena have joined their suits against Microsoft Corp. alleging a pattern of racial and sexual discrimination against African-Americans and female employees. Hundreds more may join the suit (Durham-Vichr, 2001).

A monopoly exists when there is only one seller. In Microsoft’s defense, the company’s software competitors are Corel WordPerfect Office, Lotus SmartSuite, and StarOffice, which are comparable products to its Office software product line. Microsoft’s operating system division competes directly with OS/2, Linux, Unix, and other substitute software platforms on the market. According to Spaulding, a monopoly is often described as a price setter or one who sets impossible barriers to compete in a typical market (Spaulding 2000). Microsoft avoided this monopolistic characteristic by setting the price of their Office suite programs above all their competitors. Microsoft has been successful in implementing their software into their target markets because the company possesses contracts with many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as, HP, Gateway, Dell, IBM, and many others. Krim states that Sun's suit accuses Microsoft of attempting to monopolize the market for network-server systems, unfair trade practices, and copyright infringement. The court has found that Microsoft illegally choked off distribution channels for Sun's Java programming language (Krim 2000). In light of so much evidence of Microsoft’s brutal business practices, the judicial system has yet to land a hard-line judgment on the organization’s illegal actions.

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