The Great Antitrust Awakening Can’t Be Stopped
The question isn’t just about whether to break up companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon, but how the laws are enforced.
Two decades ago the U.S. government tried to break up Microsoft Corp. It accused the company of leveraging its operating-system monopoly to squash the rival Netscape browser. An epic, yearlong trial ended in the summer of 2000 when a federal judge found Microsoft guilty of antitrust violations and ordered it split in two.
For a brief moment, it appeared that tough antitrust enforcement—largely dormant since the government abandoned its 13-year quest to break up IBM Corp. in 1982—was resurgent. But it wasn’t to be. The breakup order was reversed on appeal, and the Microsoft case was quickly settled once George W. Bush became president.