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Another Lawsuit? Sure! (12/29/97)
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It's an embarrassment of riches, truly... Just think of all the legal activity running rampant in the AtAT universe right now. In the Big Top, Big Bad Microsoft is watching its stock slide as the Department of Justice keeps pounding on them for trying to monopolize the browser market, while Sun is still poking them with the Java stick. In sideshow news, TCI and Power Computing are still involved in their duelling lawsuits about canceled orders and unfulfilled debts related to their ending of the Mac clone business. Oracle is buing sued by its stockholders for stock manipulation. And our beloved star attraction Apple still faces an ongoing suit filed by its own customers, for breach of contract when Apple allegedly reneged on its promise to provide free lifetime technical support. And let's not forget the Lawsuits of AtAT Past, many of which are probably still quietly progressing-- Exponential suing Apple, Apple suing one of its distributors, DEC suing Intel suing DEC, etc. etc. etc.
Could it possibly get any better? Sure! Because as most of you have heard by now, PowerTools has sued Apple and UMAX for $100 million, claiming that both companies have engaged in anti-trust behavior meant to prevent PowerTools from selling Mac clones. ZDNet (and just about everyone else on the planet) has the details. Allegedly, Apple was, shall we say, "concerned" about PowerTools becoming the first vendor to ship G3-based Macs, which they did in a clever way-- they skirted Apple's certification process by shipping certified 604e-based designs, with an Apple-certified G3 upgrade card preinstalled. The result was a G3-fueled Mac clone that probably outperforms the existing Apple-branded Powermac G3s... and the PowerTools models shipped first.
Anyway, the story goes that Apple then told UMAX (with whom PowerTools holds a Mac OS sublicense) to stop providing the certified clones to PowerTools, thus effectively eliminating PowerTools' ability to compete. That's a pretty low blow, if it's true. Apple being sued for anti-trust activity... How's that for a Rod-Serlingesque twist of irony?
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 12/29/97 episode: December 29, 1997: (Sorry—this was before we started writing intro text for each episode!)
Other scenes from that episode: 310: Red-Headed Stepchild (12/29/97) Poor Newton-- it always seems to be the whipping boy at Apple. And given Apple's current role as the whipping boy of the industry, that's a pretty tough position, indeed. News.com is reporting that Newton-- once again-- may be deep-sixed or sold off... 311: Stock of the Week (12/29/97) Will wonders never cease? Hot on the heels of numerous industry recommendations that AAPL is one to watch, the San Francisco Chronicle has named Apple as their Stock of the Week. In their article, Ken Lim of CyberMedia Convergence Consulting spells it out plain and simple: where else can you buy stock in a multibillion-dollar company for about thirteen bucks a share?...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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