A settlement would have been the logical maneuver for the company, and World War 3.0 recounts Microsoft's half-hearted attempt to strike a deal. He gracefully traces the mediation efforts of Judge Richard Posner, whom Jackson appointed in early 2000 to hammer out a compromise. The back and forth between Washington, D.C. and Redmond is mapped out in rich detail as the two sides futilely cycled through nineteen drafts of a case-ending agreement. But World War 3.0 does not aim to be a comprehensive Gates biography. A chronicle of self-destruction, Auletta's book paints Microsoft's defeat as the inevitable final act in a hackneyed capitalist drama.
Successful companies expand and expand until their bulk becomes a liability.