Tom WSMF wrote:
> Baiscly I see the need to legisalte MS in the same light as the need to
> legisalte radio and tv. The answer is still, if you dont like it dont
> watch/listen/consume it.
But competition is the essential issue in discussing monopolies, not consumer
choice. (The latter is used to justify the former in many cases, but is not the sole
motivation in wanting to preserve competition.)
IMO, just as important as consumer choice is the ability of new competitors to enter
markets. When the very existance of a company in one market creates barriers to
entry in many other markets, or worse creates barriers to the creation of new
markets, then... "Houston, we have a problem."
Here's one from The Entrepreneur's Handbook. Well, mine, anyway. ;-) The killer
question a VC can ask of any entrepreneur is "well, what do you do if Microsoft
enters this space?" The secret: there *is* no good answer to that. If Microsoft
wants to own something, it will. This question is actually a red herring that VCs
will toss out. The impact of Microsoft's very existance on the ability of various
endeavors to raise money is proof positive in my mind that it has a
competition-killing influence.
jb
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Apr 29 2001 - 20:25:43 PDT