Chris Shipley ran the event. Microsoft has a way of getting what Microsoft wants. This May promised to be a key moment-the unveiling of Windows 98, a product, that among other things, would now fully include Microsoft's Internet Explorer. But that, according to competitors and the Justice Department, would further Microsoft's stranglehold on software. Earlier this month, Gates rallied industry executives for a preemptive strike, claiming that if Windows 98 weren't released as planned, it would damage the entire computer industry.
Talks break down and the assembly lines roll.
But late last week Microsoft did agree to hold off shipping Windows 98 while Microsoft, Justice, and the states' attorneys general discussed ways to resolve their differences. Talks broke down, however, and today Microsoft started shipping Windows 98 to computer makers, while the Justice Department sued, as did 20 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia. Antitrust chief Joel Klein. Nothing we are doing here will or should prevent Microsoft from innovating or competing on the merits. What cannot be tolerated and what the antitrust laws forbid is the barrage of illegal anti-competitive practices that Microsoft uses to destroy its rivals and to avoid competition on the merits.