The Second Coming of the Microsoft Antitrust Battle?

▤ Summary

The move against Apple is, along with the Justice Department’s 2020 lawsuit against Google over search, perhaps the most ambitious tech antitrust battle since the Clinton administration’s effort to open up Microsoft’s Windows operating system. This week, the agency said Apple was doing something similar, unlawfully restricting competition by denying rivals access to key iPhone features like its contactless payment chip. But he added, “That’s not necessarily the best way of facilitating competition in the market.” — Michael J. de la Merced and Sarah Kessler Microsoft poached an artificial intelligence pioneer. Leading up to the initial public offering on Thursday, some wondered if Reddit users on forums like WallStreetBets, which helped power the rise of meme stocks, would try to manipulate the company’s share price as they did for GameStop, AMC Entertainment and BlackBerry. But Ivan Cosovic, the managing director of the data company Breakout Point, told DealBook that chatter in the community had been “a mix of short-term excitement driven by FOMO and long-term skepticism based on fundamentals.” Mentions of RDDT, Reddit’s stock ticker symbol, on WallStreetBets peaked after its shares started trading Thursday afternoon, rising to be on a par with mentions of the chipmaker Nvidia, a favorite stock of retail investors.

▦ Linked Companies

Microsoft

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