This 15 page paper provides an overview of the company, its history and its marketing strategy. The recent anti-trust lawsuit is discussed as are financials for a ten year period. Also included is a SWOT analysis, the use of Porter's Five Forces model and analyses with the use of other tools. Recommendations are made. Bibliography lists 7 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: RT13_SA045Mic.rtf
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due to its heavy-handed tactics and great successes ("Microsoft," 2000). Some of it is jealousy, but others see the company as being unfair. The dominance of its Windows operating system
, for example, made the company number one but it has also prompted people to take a second look at the company. Eventually, the government did break up Microsoft, though
it is pending appeal, in order to regulate its conduct in respect to beneficial pricing and other inconsistent practices (2000). While the company has accumulated a great
amount of money already, it continues to expand beyond the personal computer, as it pushes for interactive television and other e-commerce services ("Microsoft," 2000). It also has a
stake in the home mortgage business and an alliance with television stations like MSNBC (2000). Microsoft has further invested billions of dollars into cable companies throughout the world in
order to assure that its software will control interactive television (2000). Again, Microsoft seemingly not only wants to be the first, the company wants to be the best. Some say
it wants to completely knock out the competition. Even if that was an original goal, it is one that can never be realized as laws surface that would thwart any
of the companys attempts at monopoly. In addition to software, the company has delved into new territory. Microsoft Network, called MSN, is something of a testing ground for Microsofts new
NET Services Group, which is the culmination of an internal restructuring ("Microsoft," 2000). They plan to usher the companys client and end users away from software licensing and towards monthly
subscriptions of Web-based services (2000). MSN was actually something that came after Gates held out, not wanting to get into that niche (2000). Microsoft has been involved in a great