The Story of a Great Monopoly (1881)(theatlantic.com) |
The Story of a Great Monopoly (1881)(theatlantic.com) |
The contract is in print by which the Pennsylvania Railroad agreed with the Standard, under the name of the South Improvement Company, to double the freights on oil to everybody, but to repay the Standard one dollar for every barrel of oil it shipped, and one dollar for every barrel any of its competitors shipped.
Strong shades of Microsoft's per-CPU licensing agreement for PCs.
Or of how to respond to questions under inquiry:
When Mr. Vanderbilt was questioned by Mr. Simon Sterne, of the New York committee, about these and other things, his answers were, “I don’t know,” “I forget,” “I don’t remember,” to 116 questions out of 249 by actual count.
The names change but the game's the same.
It's certainly true. Even though Gates was universally mocked for his approach, and although it was widely interpreted as making Microsoft look more guilty, it's exactly how Zuckerberg and Larry Page will respond when their embryonic anti-trust parties get to that point. Their lawyers will advise that that approach is still the safest way to go, despite how it will look. When in doubt, play dumb.