Following the decision of the Court of First Instance, in the case of EC against Microsoft, I've seen some statements that left me speachless. Without any further comments, here they are:
I want Microsoft's market share to diminish to significantly less than 95%. I can't say that it has to be precisely 50% or whatever number, but it has to be significantly less than 95.
- Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner from Competition Policy
We've proposed a great way for Europe to accomplish this and I'm happy to say that so far they seem to be listening to us. Which is more than I can say for the U.S. government which is still stuck with this quaint idea that governments shouldn't decide how much market share any one company should have in any one market.
- Steve Jobs, Apple
And here's the one I like the most:
The Commission asserts that the applicant’s refusal creates a risk that all effective competition on the secondary market for work group server operating systems will be eliminated.
- Paragraph 454 of the Court of First Instance decision
Do you remember Minority Report (the movie starring Tom Cruise)? Sure looks to me that EC is prepareing a Precrime unit... Would it be an ideea to simply kill companies while they are still small, you know, just to avoid the "RISK" of becominge large.
For the first two, the only comment I have is that when I read them, I fel like listening again to one of Ceausescu's speeches.
Oh.... I have an idea ... let's ask the European Commissioner lady to diminish iPod's market share. Hmmm... don't you feel there's too much Coca Cola these days on the market? Aren't you bored flying those Airbus planes in Europe every day? And yes, I hate too that company that's manufacturing those sealed packs for natural juices. Let's get together and show them who's the boss!
It's just now that I'm starting to really understand why aren't we capable to get a constitution in Europe. With this type of thinking, it would be a .... RISK.
<Update>
Try to eliminate the name Microsoft from this equation, then analyze again these statements. To be honest, only after I removed Microsoft I got the real headaches.
</Update>