During the 20th century, the giants of the American technology industry—IBM, AT&T, Microsoft and Intel—were each put through the antitrust wringer. Yet, as David Moschella writes in Legal Dive, all four investigations delivered the same basic message: It’s changing technology, not large government interventions, that ultimately checks the power of dominant firms. Expensive, multi-year attempts to break up the leaders of the day either failed or proved unnecessary. In contrast, more narrow and targeted policies have often helped the digital world move forward. As the cases against Alphabet, Amazon, and Apple unfold, this history is worth revisiting.
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