Antitrust and Regulation In 1995, antitrust authorities claimed that the personal finance/checkbook

Antitrust and Regulation

In 1995, antitrust authorities claimed that the personal
finance/checkbook software market was concentrated Intuit’s software, Quicken,
was the top seller in the market with a market share of 69 percent Microsoft’s
software, Money, was second with 22 percent of the market Together, the Intuit
and Microsoft market share was 91 percent

In1995, Microsoft agreed to acquire all Intuit stock from
Intuit’s shareholders and to exchange 1336 shares of Microsoft for each share
of Intuit stock If the sale had closed, the acquisition would have cost $2
billion

The Justice Department sought to block the Microsoft
acquisition of Intuit, arguing that it would lessen competition and innovation
in the personal finance/checkbook software market They also cited a statement
by Microsoft to Intuit in which Microsoft declared it would substantially
increase its competitive efforts if Intuit did not agree to be acquired
Furthermore, the Justice Department argued that if Microsoft did acquire Intuit
(and Quicken), this would eliminate the chance of any new competitors in the
personal finance/checkbook software market in the future Quicken in the hands
of Intuit was a strong competitor, but Quicken in the hands of powerful
Microsoft would be daunting