Larry Pressler: “last night we had what I thought was a very stimulating debate on what makes technology move. And I pointed out that…”

“last night we had what I thought was a very stimulating debate on what makes technology move. And I pointed out that sometimes Government regulation is appropriate but in the computer industry there were no standards and there was no Government regulation and the computer industry moved forward very quickly. I am very stimulated by discussions of what makes technology move forward, what kind of research really results in things moving forward. competition in the computer and telephone industries: a comparison By the early 1980's, AT&T and IBM were two of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. Both had been embroiled in antitrust litigation with the Department of Justice for over a decade. Both the AT&T and IBM suits had focused on interconnection and bundling practices. The Government's complaint against IBM charged the company with "[m]aintain[ing] pricing policies, including the quoting of a single price for hardware, software and related support," which "discriminated among customers" and "limited the development and scope of activities of an independent software and computer support industry * * *." IBM was charged with monopolizing both the general marked for electronic digital computer systems, and the submarkets of peripherals and other computer add-ons.”