Well, this sad little story has now come to an end. PSI is no more. IBM purchased the company this week for an undisclosed amount rumored to be in the tens of millions of dollars, thus extinguishing PSI’s legal claims against it, and – more importantly – cementing a monopoly that is now more complete than at any time since Amdahl launched the first plug-compatible mainframe in 1975.
But aren’t antitrust laws supposed to prevent this kind of thing? Surprisingly enough, the answer might be no. According to the Wall Street Journal, IBM believes PSI’s revenues are too small to trigger action by either the U.S. Department of Justice or the European Union in Brussels. In other words, IBM is saying that since they already own 99.9% of the market, squashing the one remaining competitor who has 0.1% is no big deal.
But aren’t antitrust laws supposed to prevent this kind of thing? Surprisingly enough, the answer might be no. According to the Wall Street Journal, IBM believes PSI’s revenues are too small to trigger action by either the U.S. Department of Justice or the European Union in Brussels. In other words, IBM is saying that since they already own 99.9% of the market, squashing the one remaining competitor who has 0.1% is no big deal.
Link: interopsystems.com
Category:
- Business
