America's No. 1 financial conglomerate

Chapter 411 Multi-Party Game

"I wonder if Microsoft can pull through this time." Hamilton sat upright on the sofa in the meeting room, his brows furrowed, his tone grave. His tense profile and the worry in his eyes made him look like the CEO.

Wenger, standing beside him, gently twirled the glass of water in his hand, his voice calm and reassuring, "Now we can only leave it to fate. If there were other options, Microsoft probably wouldn't have resorted to such an extreme strategy. What I didn't expect was that Wall Street would actually be adding fuel to the fire, further exacerbating market volatility."

The real driving force behind the sharp decline in the Nasdaq index in recent days is Microsoft, which is embroiled in an antitrust controversy.

The media is flooded with all sorts of alarmist reports, from the imminent collapse of the Microsoft empire to the impending doom of the American tech industry, and the source of all of them is Microsoft.

These carefully crafted statements are essentially a tactic by Microsoft to guide public opinion and exert pressure on the US government.

By exaggerating the crisis it faces, Microsoft is trying to make the US government realize its important position in the technology industry, thereby gaining a more favorable situation in the antitrust lawsuit. It can be described as killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of its own.

Wall Street, meanwhile, took matters into its own hands, delivering a heavy blow to this negative market sentiment and pushing the turmoil to a new climax.

If Microsoft's public relations campaign was a hidden attack, then Wall Street's actions were an open attack.

Originally, media reports focused on the risk of Microsoft's fate impacting the future of the US technology industry.

This reinforces the public's perception that Microsoft represents the American technology industry.

However, in the past few days, public opinion has clearly shifted, with more and more institutions publicly expressing their pessimism about Microsoft, and public opinion has turned towards Microsoft itself.

Microsoft would never do that, so the whole story points to Wall Street, who are shorting the stock.

"Actually, from another perspective, this behavior of Wall Street may not be a bad thing. The more aggressively they short the stock, the safer Microsoft becomes."

Ernst's gaze remained fixed on the television screen until Bill Gates' figure completely disappeared from the picture. He then slowly looked away and continued, "Wall Street capital would never do something as foolish as picking up a sesame seed and losing a watermelon. The benefits of promoting the rapid development of the Internet industry are far greater than shorting the Nasdaq market in the short term. They know this better than anyone else."

"The fact that Wall Street is now using the Microsoft antitrust lawsuit as an opportunity to short Nasdaq proves that they know Microsoft will not ultimately be broken up, doesn't it?"

That makes sense. The internet industry is currently experiencing a booming development phase, with various innovative technologies and business models constantly emerging, and the market size continuing to expand.

In this market environment, the potential gains from continuously pushing up the valuations of internet companies and then reaping the rewards once the market reaches a certain level of hype far surpass those from shorting the Nasdaq market in the short term.

From a profit perspective, Wall Street probably doesn't want Microsoft to be broken up even more than Microsoft itself.

If Microsoft were to collapse, the entire internet industry's development would be disrupted, and their substantial early investments could be lost.

However, Wenger was not as optimistic as Ernst. He shook his head slightly, his tone tinged with worry. "I understand what you're saying, but don't forget that both houses are now in the hands of the elephants. More than 60% of the members of Congress participating in the Microsoft antitrust hearing today are Republicans."

At its deepest level, the Microsoft breakup case is a clash between an elephant and a donkey.

Just look at the twenty states that sued Microsoft; they're all big red states.

Ernst smiled calmly upon hearing this, picked up his coffee cup, and gently swirled it. "But I also know that promoting the development of the technology industry is the Donald's grand strategy, and it is also the Democratic Party's most important financial supporter, and the situation that Wall Street most wants to see."

As the core representative of American financial capital, Wall Street's interests are now closely intertwined with the development of the technology industry.

The booming development of technology companies not only brings substantial investment returns to Wall Street, but also drives the growth of the entire U.S. economy.

Therefore, Wall Street will inevitably side with Microsoft and prevent it from being broken up, and Donald will absolutely not allow Microsoft to be broken up. As long as there is a glimmer of hope, Donald will not give up.

The technology industry is Donald's second largest source of funding for its future development, especially with the huge donation Ernst provided during the midterm elections, which has shown Donald the enormous potential of the technology industry as a major source of funding in the future.

From the perspective of policy continuity or political interests, Donald cannot sit idly by and watch Microsoft be broken up. They will do everything in their power as long as there is even a glimmer of hope.

"I hope things are as you say," Hamilton sighed, his eyes filled with complex emotions, and added hesitantly, "but to be honest, deep down I don't want Microsoft to get through this crisis unscathed."

Hamilton is conflicted today, caught in a highly contradictory psychological state.

From a rational perspective, he certainly doesn't want Microsoft to collapse.

If Microsoft collapses, Google will be the next to face the Department of Justice.

As long as the U.S. Department of Justice finds even the smallest fault with Google, it will never let this increasingly powerful behemoth go.

At that time, Google will face the same fate as Microsoft is now: being broken up. Search engines, Gmail, Google Messenger, Google Tunes, and even Google Video, which has not yet been launched, may all face the fate of being broken up.

This was definitely a huge blow to Hamilton.

Managing the entire, massive Google empire is vastly different from managing one of its spun-off business units, in terms of social influence, personal status, and compensation.

The key issue is the hassle.

In the course of development, companies inevitably encounter various compliance issues. Violations are, to some extent, the norm in the industry; it just depends on which line you cross.

If Microsoft is indeed broken up, Hamilton's future work will likely involve dealing with the judicial system for the majority of the time.

However, from another perspective, Hamilton also did not want Microsoft to pass smoothly.

After all, Microsoft, as the world's most valuable company, is Google's main competitor in the technology industry.

Although Microsoft's core strategy is in the operating system field and its strategic importance in the Internet field has declined, no one can guarantee that this technology giant with strong technological research and development capabilities and huge financial reserves will not readjust its strategy one day in the future and make a comeback to launch a fierce attack on Google in the Internet field.

Similarly, Google's development direction is not necessarily static.

The future market environment is full of uncertainties. Who can guarantee that Google won't adjust its business strategy at some point and enter Microsoft's core strategic area, the operating system market?

"If only this antitrust case could drag on forever, for ten or eight years, that would be the perfect situation for Google," Hamilton muttered to himself, seemingly fantasizing about such an ideal competitive landscape.

As soon as he said those words, not only Ernst and Wenger, but even Karl Weller, a technical guy, couldn't help but look up and unconsciously turn to look at him.

That look was full of concern, no different from looking at an idiot.

The only way to drag this global trial of Microsoft into ten or eight years is for Microsoft to keep losing, then keep appealing, and eventually get bogged down in a lengthy legal process.

But if this lawsuit really lasts that long, Microsoft will have to bear huge litigation costs, deal with market concerns about its uncertainty, have its stock price remain depressed, its business development be hindered, and the amount of fines is unknown. What difference is there between such an outcome and a breakup?

Let alone dragging it out for ten or eight years, even a delay of two or three years would be enough to give a tech company like Microsoft a run for its money.

Hamilton's idea is quite rosy: to draw the Justice Department's attention to Microsoft, allowing Google to take advantage of the situation and grow stronger, so that Microsoft will be dragged down and Google will become fully grown. Isn't that just wishful thinking?

He realized that his idea was a bit far-fetched, gave an awkward dry laugh, and turned his gaze back to the television screen.

The television screen has now switched to the interior of the U.S. Capitol. The Microsoft defense team has disappeared and is presumably making final preparations in the lounge, awaiting the official start of the hearing.

The scene is filled with members of parliament dressed in formal attire and with serious expressions. Many of these members of parliament are well-known political figures who frequently appear on various political news programs.

"David Boyce is still here, but I don't think I see Olink." Wenger now pays a lot of attention to political figures, and he can recognize almost anyone when the camera pans across him.

In this Microsoft antitrust lawsuit, two people have been the most aggressive: David Boyce, a representative from the U.S. Department of Justice, and Representative Olink from Texas, a Republican stronghold.

David Boyce hoped to gain fame by stepping on Microsoft, and Olink did the same. He hoped to use Microsoft to gain political capital in Texas and pave the way for his future political career.

Texas is the home base of the elephants, and the title of "headquarters" is well-deserved.

Throughout Texas, in every election, the elephant has never received less than 70% of the vote; the Lone Star State seems destined to be a donkey.

"That's a positive sign," Hamilton said happily, a rare smile appearing on his face, and his tone becoming more relaxed. Ernst remained silent. Although he firmly believed that Microsoft would not be broken up, with his butterfly effect, history could indeed be changed, and it was not impossible.