World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies

by Ken Auletta and AULETTA Ken

Book Overview

Examines the government's antitrust trial of Microsoft, the company's defeat in court, and the implications of the case for Microsoft, its rivals, and the new high-tech Internet economy. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375503668
• ISBN13: 9780375503665
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Packed With Knowledge!

Although a paranoid, childish and somewhat sniveling Bill Gates is the undoubted antagonist in author Ken Auletta's gripping account of the U.S. government's escalating war against Microsoft, it's tough to find the good guys. By detailing the legal maneuverings of Microsoft's competitors, which in large part spurred the government to action, Auletta pierces some of the innocent-victim personas adopted by the likes of Sun CEO Scott McNealy and others. But the author's treatment of Gates and his Microsoft colleagues is merciless, and in this honest portrait Auletta illustrates how the company's own arrogance brought on its legal woes. News junkies may find the broad outlines of the case familiar, but Auletta uses his readable style to delve into the major personalities and their motivations. We [...] like the way he makes even legal, technological details interesting to the general reader and fascinating to fans of corporate war stories. Read this book before catching the gripping sequel - playing now in U.S. Federal Court - in which Microsoft lands a critical counter-punch.

Well researched and insightful.

I purchased this title on a whim. Although I followed "the trial" as it was being reported in the media I did not find the proceedings, as they were described in the press, to be that interesting. I also knew that whatever happened, this case would be appealed and last for several more years. Consequently, I did not have high expectations for this book. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this book was much more interesting and insightful that I had imagined. Auletta does an excellent job of describing the background, tactics, technical issues, personalities, and legal issues that surrounded this trial. Unlike other reports on the trial, he did not just encapsulate the events that took place in the courtroom. Instead, he spent considerable effort to research, then explain, events that went on behind the scenes - before, during, and after the trial.The spin that was often portrayed in the media was that Microsoft was being victimized or punished just for being successful. The Microsoft media machine did an excellent job of promoting this view either through tactics such as full-page ads in newspapers or Gate's (and others) frequent appearances on television. While I have never been a big fan of Microsoft, part of me started to believe them. After reading this book however, any sympathy that I had for Microsoft, as it relates to the trial, has been erased. Auletta's recounting of the trial makes it clear that they used their monopolistic power to attempt to control or quash any company that threatened the market dominance of any of their core products. In short, they were unwilling to "play fair" and let the best products win in the marketplace. Some members of the media portrayed Judge Jackson as someone that may have had a grudge against Microsoft. The facts imply that he started out with the fairly impartial attitude. It was Microsoft's frequent and blatant deception, and their inability to any admit guilt even when such guilt was proven, that frustrated the judge. This frustration was evident in some of the language that he used when he wrote his final opinions and findings.If you have an interest in technology, business, or just like a good courtroom drama, then I think that you will enjoy this selection. It is insightful and written in style that holds your attention.

It ain't over till it's over-MSFT vs US in exquisite detail

Just when we were waiting for Microsoft to meekly split itself based on the outcome of the first landmark court decision, it looks like the software giant is racking up the points in what may be the most exciting appeals case in US history. World War 3.0 couldn't have come at a better time. This book goes into background about Internet browsers, the internet itself and computer operating systems, a key point in the anti-trust lawsuit. And it does an equally thorough job of informing the reader about US anti-trust law. These details are essential to understanding the case against Microsoft, and they are presented here in a way that is detailed yet completely comprehensible.This would be dry reading indeed if there were not also vivid descriptions of the players; Bill Gates, brilliant, visionary,self-absorbed and completely ill-equipped to play the high-stakes game of personality; the prosecutor, who has gotten himself the case of a lifetime and Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, traditional and sober judge. What is surprising is how much Judge Jackson reveals in this book, as judges are notoriously close-mouthed. The appeals process is now underway and it ain't over till it's over. If you want to be informed on a case that will literally affect the future of technology, it's well worth reading World War 3.0.

A balanced report of the Microsoft Trial

[Disclosure: I am a Microsoft employee]I found this book to be very balanced (though far from always flattering to Microsoft). Both sides take their licks at the hands of Mr. Auletta. Though I was paying moderately close attention during the course of the trial, this book pulls the events into perspective and shows how each side was approaching the case. As to the timing of this book release, the war is not yet over...but we do have a decent amount of perspective from the case since the trial and settlement negotiations were substatially complete in April 2000.The best part of the book is Chapter 21. Here, is much new material on what it was that Microsoft and the US goverment were able to agree to in a negotiated settlement. We get a picture of Microsoft, not agreeing that we broke the law, but willing to compromise and agree to behavioral remedies that would have given competitors assurances of access to Windows technology and freedom from retaliation. But Joel Klein failed in bringing the States into the negotiation process and was unable to form a concensus opinion about what it was the government(s) wanted from the case. And so an opportunity to close this conflict was missed....at an expense of millions of tax dollars, perhaps 100 million expense to MS, and helping to precipitate the stock market downslide of technology stocks in the spring of 2000 (thanks, Joel Klein and Janet Reno!).

Much more than the trial

Dazzling -- the whole "new economy" landscape is made clear, and all the big players and their competing visions for the future are explained, but the great thng is that the author has worked in all his big-picture analysis so that it hangs off of the book's storyline, the courtroom drama. It's unbelievable how indiscreet some of the people talking to him were -- especially Judge Jackson.