Had Microsoft been wise enough to concede the point of Internet browsers instead of attempting to throw their muscle around, they would have stuck to their core business, and been a stronger, more lean company. Instead, they have forced all of us to pay millions of dollars for their lengthy court cases that will inevitably prove that nobody wins when a company tries to foist it's views of right and wrong on the rest of the world. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the way Microsoft has brought the prices of software and computer OS-es down, but they should have kept their vision in line with their overall business pursuits in the case of the browsers. No parent is beloved when the children are made to suffer for the parent's lack of vision. When a child is made to pay for the lack of fortitude in its parent, the child is weak.
Weak individuals become targets for opportunists.
Opportunists are eventually overcome by larger opportunists, and the cycle continues. By focusing a child corporation's drive to succeed, and helping it to establish sound business practices, and then releasing them to the world at large, a parent will profit immeasurably, even at the cost of a minor loss of business. So shall it be if the current regimes decide to take the next step, and spin off the businesses they acquire, rather than systematically destroy them for a short-term profit. Until the time that big businesses see the light, we Dot-Commoners will be the bane of their existence. People will continue to start their small businesses on the Internet, and the megacorps won't have a chance to keep up.