4 Why was AT T allowed to be a monopoly for many years while

4. Why was AT& T allowed to be a monopoly for many years, while Standard Oil was not?

5. Why was AT&T finally not allowed to be a monopoly and then broken up?

6. Why was Microsoft prosecuted by the Justice Dept. for being a monopoly?

Please help me answer all these questions. it will help for my final

Solution

The difference between AT&T and Standard Oil is that the former is a subsidiary of Bell Telephone Company that patented the telephone technology. The company was formed by the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell himself. This means that the company had exclusive rights over the technology and was the first one to enter the market. The Standard oil company on the other hand was a oil refining company that used aggressive pricing as it controlled over 85% of oil production. It had competitors who were unhappy with its low pricing due to the understanding it had with transporters. It was discovered that the company was making huge profits due to unfair trade practices, aggressive pricing after the year 1900. This lead to the feds filing a case for the violation of anti-trust laws. The key point is that while AT&T was the first entrant, patent holder and it was involved in maintaining national security, Standard oil company was simply an oil refining company.

5. AT&T was not finally not allowed to be a monopoly since it was the largest and the single owner of a company since by 1980\'s the government did not support monopoly and a case was filed against AT&T under the Sherman Anti-trust Act. In 1983 Ma Bell (AT&T) was asked to give away its technology to smaller companies for calling services within the region while AT&T could keep long distance calling technology.

6. The main reason why microsoft was prosecuted for being a monopoly was because it allegedly abused its monopoly position by providing Internet Explorer web browser along with its Windows software on intel based computers. This led to other web browsers not being used as the computers came pre-installed with IE. The case was filed for alleged involvement in anti-competitiveness practices which was against the anti-trust laws.