While Microsoft seems determined to fight its domestic antitrust battles to the bitter end ("Give me monopoly or give me death!"), aReuters article reveals that they are smart enough not to fight a two-front war on different continents. When European Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert approached Microsoft with the fact that their bundling agreements with twenty-four European internet service providers contain clauses which "fly in the face of competition," instead of fighting on the beaches, etc., Microsoft backed off. The Commissioner says that Microsoft "seems to be prepared to offer in due time remedies" so that the case need not be pressed any further.

So is this a Microsoft who has seen the error of its ways, or just one who knows how to pick its battles? We at AtAT feel it's the latter. The war on the U.S. front is being fought to keep its fantastic edge over archenemy Netscape; losing a bundling deal with some European ISP's isn't going to make such a huge difference, since as long as every U.S. Wintel PC ships out with Internet Explorer preinstalled, Microsoft is virtually guaranteed to win the browser wars. (Apple isn't quite as neutral as Sweden in this fight; until next month's CD-ROM release of Mac OS 8.1, Apple installed Netscape Navigator as the default browser with its operating system software, but as part of the historic Apple-Microsoft Treaty of 1997, will now install MSIE as the standard. However, as AtAT Special Correspondent Dan Grams points out, Netscape is still on the 8.1 CD-ROM, and the end-user gets to choose in the end.)

The real question is, does Microsoft also know never to fight a land war in Asia? As it stands, right now they don't have to, as it's only the government of Japan who are currently investigating whether they should slap Microsoft with antitrust proceedings. Given their decision to cave when faced with the European threat, will Microsoft stick to its guns if Japan starts firing? Stay tuned!