In Microsoft We Trust

摘要

Bill Gates owes Henry Marine, founder of the Law & Economics Center (LEC) at George Mason University School of Law in Virginia, a billion-dollar cup of coffee. Manne provided one of the three key ingredients to Microsoft's success. Certainly Microsoft's leaders were among the first to understand the possibilities of the PC as a mass-market product, calling for different business strategies from those of the big-computer world. They were brilliant, ruthless, and relentless. Nevertheless, Microsoft's success mostly flowed from its expertise in wielding monopolistic power and the knowledge that the American judicial system would do little to prevent any means of trade, predatory pricing, or monopolization Microsoft chose to pursue. For this, as we shall see, Manne deserves much of the credit.