The art of declaring victory

It was almost a joke to hear U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft hail the Microsoft anti-trust ruling as a great victory for consumers.
It was Ashcroft's Justice Department team that happily negotiated away any leverage the government had against Microsoft.
The little that might pass as a victory was awarded by the judge, reacting to demands of nine dissident states who argued for greater protection against Microsoft's monopolistic instincts.
It is now little more than useless speculation, but we can't help wonder how different things would be today if the first judge on the case had simply kept his mouth shut, at least until after all the appeals had been argued.
But instead, Thomas Penfield Jackson was so put off by computer genius Bill Gates' ability to swing from arrogance to forgetfulness in his testimony that he took a couple of public verbal swipes at Gates after issuing his order that Microsoft should be divided into two companies.
Jackson's intemperate remarks gave Microsoft an enormous advantage in its appeal. It was not only able to get an appeals court to agree that Jackson's order to break up the company was too severe, it got the court to yank him from the case.
The times changed
At the same time, Clinton administration lawyers who had invested six years in the battle were replaced by Bush administration lawyers. The new team eagerly complied when the new judge, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, suggested that the lawyers for Microsoft and the government sit down and hammer out a deal.
Thus ends what could be one of the most important antitrust cases of the early 21st century. No one argues that the government proved that Microsoft violated U.S. antitrust law through a pattern of intimidating and manipulating its own customers in ways that stifled potential competition.
What the government couldn't prove was the extent to which that illegal activity resulted in Microsoft achieving a near monopoly in its market.
If Ashcroft really thinks his department achieved a great victory, he should look at Gates' bottom line. News of Friday's settlement resulted in a weekend surge in the Microsoft stock price that added nearly $2 billion to the value of the 600 million shares of Microsoft that Gates holds.
While Ashcroft is declaring victory, Gates is laughing all the way to the bank.