Chapter Six - Antitrust and Iron Grip

CHAPTER SIX

Antitrust and Iron Grip

BY THE MID-1990S, Microsoft wasn’t just big.
It was everywhere.

Windows 95 wasn’t just an operating system.
It was a cultural event.

People lined up at midnight to get it.
It had a start menu, plug-and-play, built-in networking, and… most importantly…

Internet Explorer.

That was the spark.

Because the internet was exploding and Netscape had the browser game on lock. It was sleek, independent, and symbolic of the open web.

Microsoft didn’t like that.

Gates went full gladiator.

He bundled Internet Explorer with Windows, for free.
If your computer had Windows, it came with Microsoft’s browser.
You didn’t need Netscape anymore.

It was a masterstroke of strategy.
And a legal landmine.

The U.S. Department of Justice pounced.

In 1998, the United States v. Microsoft trial began.
The charge? Monopoly abuse.
The Accusation? Using operating system dominance to crush competitors.

The trial was long.
It was brutal.
And for the first time, Bill Gates, usually calm and calculated, came off like an evasive, defensive megamind.

He stammered through depositions.
Footage leaked of him dodging basic questions with smug shrugs and technicality tap dances.

It was PR poison.

Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson didn’t hold back.
His ruling: Microsoft was a monopoly, and it should be split in two.

It almost happened.

But through appeals, settlements, and aggressive lawyering, Microsoft survived intact.
Bruised, but alive.

Still, something in Gates changed after that.

He’d been the architect of the PC revolution.
The man who turned software into gold.

But now, the world saw him as a tech tyrant.
A monopolist.

He could keep building.
Or… he could pivot.

And that’s exactly what he did.