The Microsoft File : The Secret Case Against Bill Gates [Hardcover]

Wendy Goldman Rohm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1998

The Microsoft File is an extraordinary fly-on-the-wall account of Microsoft's intent to monopolize the computer industry. Wendy Goldman Rohm takes you to the inner sanctum of Microsoft, has you sit in on meetings between Microsoft and important customers and competitors, and looks at the struggles of the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice as they try to develop a strategy to counter one of the most serious charges of market manipulation since John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil.

The Microsoft File is based on information from not one but many "Deep Throats," as well as internal documents that tell a story of:

> How Microsoft's predatory marketing and pricing behavior belies its claims of fair competition.

> How Microsoft killed the market for a competitor's operating system, a system that could have challenged MS-DOS.

> How bugging devices were found in the hotel room of a supposed business partner of Microsoft's the day before a critical meeting with Microsoft.

> How Microsoft inserted hidden code in the beta version of Windows 3.1, creating fear in the marketplace that competing products would crash and adding a byte in the final version that was marketed so the hidden code wouldn't appear on the screen.

> How close Apple came to discarding the Macintosh operating system for Windows, and the real reason why Bill Gates decided to invest some $250 million in Apple.

> How Microsoft, despite nondisclosure agreements, obtained and used technological secrets from competitors.

> How the biggest mergers in the software industry unfolded, blow-by-blow, as Microsoft's competitors tried to survive the increasing power of the Gates juggernaut.

Is Microsoft's rise as the world's most powerful and successful company a classic example of the free market, as many Microsoft apologists contend? Is its success, and the failure of other companies, the result of the creative destruction that makes capitalism so strong?  The Microsoft File suggests that other forces were at work.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Name the most successful companies over the last 10 years, and you'd be remiss if you didn't mention Microsoft. Guided by the unique--some would say maniacal--personality of founder Bill Gates, Microsoft has grown faster and touched more lives than just about any other company in recent memory. Over the years, the software giant has been dogged by competitors--mainly in backrooms and courtrooms-- and by the government on charges of unholy monopolies, predatory practices, and stifling innovation in the PC industry. As the government's ongoing antitrust case against Microsoft goes to trial, this critical chorus grows even louder, led in part by Wendy Goldman Rohm's book, The Microsoft File.

This is the book that Microsoft doesn't want you to read. With the help of "insider" information from both Microsoft and the government, Goldman Rohm surveys the history of Microsoft's business practices with PC manufacturers and software vendors. Tracing the development of the government's antitrust case against Microsoft, starting at the FTC and continuing on at the Justice Department, she paints a harsh and unforgiving picture that's not at all flattering to Gates or the rest of Microsoft's top brass. The Bill Gates that emerges from these pages is small, petty, and deeply paranoid. At the same time, she puts a face on the Justice Department that's never been seen before. For those who revel in examining the dark underbelly of America's most successful company, The Microsoft File is a required and enormously entertaining read. It's also a useful primer for anyone interested in the government's antitrust efforts. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards

Review

...a book that is by turns salacious, unbelievable, and dated. Not a good mix at all. -- Business Week, Steve Hamm

Ms. Rohm's book can at least be read as a germ-seed of the Justice Department's antitrust case. -- The Wall Street Journal, Holman Jenkins Jr.

On the surface, Wendy Goldman Rohm's The Microsoft File: The Secret Case Against Bill Gates purports to offer standard business fare, detailing Microsoft Corp.'s "pattern of predatory business practices." But The Microsoft File starts on seamy ground, smearing Gates for his taste in women. The implication is that Gates and others are morally suspect because of their sexual activities. What makes this sexual detour irrelevant is that if even a third of what Goldman Rohm says about Microsoft's business practices is true, Gates may one day make John D. Rockefeller look like a saint. Using largely unnamed sources, she writes about how Gates allegedly used every trick in a monopolist's book to force computer manufacturers to sell his software and deny the public innovation. The book also amply details how Microsoft blatantly copied competitors' products. -- Upside

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 313 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; 1st edition (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812927168
• ISBN-13: 978-0812927160
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #696,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reporting from the Ida Tarbell of the information age, May 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Microsoft File : The Secret Case Against Bill Gates (Hardcover)

The Microsoft File is a great read and an incredible work of investigative journalism. Published originally a few months before the Microsoft trial began, it turned out to be prophetic and revealed a goldmine of information that had been kept secret from the public. Rohm collected internal Microsoft documents including email from Bill Gates himself, to document her account of Microsoft's predatory activities over the past decade. Bravo ! Rohm is the Ida Tarbell of the information age. Her book is the current day version of Tarbell's masterpiece "The History of Standard Oil." Not to be missed.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Microsoft in the '90's: players and events made memorable, March 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Microsoft File : The Secret Case Against Bill Gates (Hardcover)

This book covers the time frame from 1989 to 1998, focusing on the activities of Microsoft, its competitors and the government's antitrust effort over that period of time. The investigator of Microsoft and Bill Gates would do well to include this volume on their list, though it must be seen in conjunction with other works such as HARD DRIVE and OVERDRIVE, to get a complete picture. This book has much to recommend it. The stories behind the government efforts and frustrations in bringing Microsoft and its boss to task for its monopolistic and predatory practices are thoroughly presented. The basic patterns that Microsoft has used to gain its apparent stranglehold on both operating systems and software applications are well documented. The strengths of the book are in the story telling, the detailing of events ... sometimes to the point of "being there". The author's forte and the real value of the book, in my opinion, lies in the strength of the story telling. Ms. Goldman Rohm's ability to bring colour and texture to the events that she records lifts potentially flat information to memorable vitality. Her "characters" (and there are oodles of them in this Microsoft saga) are usually given shape through telling physical description, record of signature behaviours, and nick names (D'Artagnan). The environment in which events occur is given flavour and detail. To a degree that one would not expect in such a work, qualities of a good novel or play are used ... happily, as there are so many characters and so many events. Two helpful features of the work are: the list of main players found at the beginning of the work, listed according to "team" (ie. FTC, Microsoft, etc.) and position AND the italicized synopsis and hilite package found at the beginning of each chapter. Even with these features and the imaginative chapter titles (ie. Chapter 1: Double Bill> referring to Bill Gates and Bill Neukom), this reader still had his problems keeping it all together. The material is multitudinous and chaotic as reality tends to be. I personally could have done with a chart of major events, dates, and characters. Ms. Goldman Rohm has done a commendable job of making the people and events real and memorable. I personally thank her for her poetry and Ray Noorda's.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revealing, exhaustively researched, a great read!, April 20, 1999

By 

Candace S. ([e-mail]) (Denver, Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Microsoft File : The Secret Case Against Bill Gates (Hardcover)

This book purports to tell the reader how the world's leading software company REALLY became so big and dominant, and indeed we find that the reality is rather different from the PR myth. And yes, based largely on unnamed sources as it is, I find this book far more believable than any official Microsoft version of events, or any MS denouncement of the author's reporting for that matter. (Hey, think about it: no publisher would put out a book with THIS many serious charges against "the richest man in the world" and his company, if they weren't confident of the author's work!) Clearly exhaustively researched, the book provides detailed and engaging accounts of numerous business deals in which MS was a factor or an active player. So, we get to see just how underhanded MS and its top executives could be at times, often stabbing supposed business partners (Go and IBM, among others) squarely in the back. There are tons of fascinating relevations and new perspectives on a variety of events: the Apple stock purchase; the 'AARD' code in Windows 3.1; the FTC and Justice Department antitrust activities with regard to MS (or lack thereof); shifting a major computer manufacturer (Germany's Vobis) from DR-DOS to MS-DOS...the list goes on. The key to the book's success at accomplishing its stated purpose is the abundance of MS memos, email, and other documentation somehow dug up by Rohm, that tell "the real story" behind so much of what MS has done and is doing. In particular, we see Gates and other top executives making it clear that their goal is to dominate every market and freeze out all competition, NOT to "innovate" and make the best products as they like to claim publicly. I doubt "make Gates look like trash" was a goal for the author, but the picture of Gates that emerges sure isn't a pretty one. He's revealed as ruthless and ridiculously paranoid about anyone else who might actually market a competing product. Is the mighty MS afraid that others could very well make better products? Maybe that's the real reason they are so obsessed with stamping out competition, and continue their efforts to lock everyone into an all-Microsoft, all-the-time, world. There's plenty more interesting stuff where this came from...if the bits I mentioned sound the least bit intriguing, grab a copy of the book, I bet you won't regret it.