DOJ takes on an age-old foe: IBM

Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- The decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to begin an antitrust inquiry into IBM's mainframe business could reignite a legal battle that started 40 years ago.

Whatever the DOJ does or doesn't do with IBM in the months ahead, its action will take place against the backdrop of the government's 1969 antitrust case against the company. It was the longest, and perhaps most brutal, antitrust case ever fought -- a battle royale that finally ended in a dismissal in 1982 after a six-year trial.

The Justice Department has issued civil investigative demands (CID) -- the equivalent of subpoenas -- to probe competitor claims that IBM is thwarting competition in the mainframe market. That "means they're really serious," said Robert Lande, a professor of law at the University of Baltimore in Maryland. "To say that it is historic is an understatement -- it's not something they would do lightly, he said.

IBM's business opponents say they have assembled evidence that supports allegations that the company is using its power in the mainframe market to stymie competition. "We think we have a lot of smoking guns here showing really punitive behavior, threatening behavior, aimed at stopping companies and business models that had a chance to interfere with their monopoly position," said Ed Black, president and CEO of the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA).

The CCIA is confirming that the CIDs have been issued. The IBM-mainframe-compatible market all but died nearly a decade ago, once IBM moved to a 64-bit system. Today, IBM owns this mainframe market. But there are, nonetheless, avenues for competition that Black contends are being closed off by the company.

One company, Platform Solutions Inc., had developed technology that could have allowed IBM's z/OS and OS/390 operating systems and applications to run on Itanium-based systems. IBM sued the company in 2006 for patent infringement and then later bought the firm.

It's not clear how well IBM's mainframe operating system would run on alternative hardware platforms today. "The whole idea behind the mainframe is all the pieces fit together as an integrated system, so even if you can take the OS and run it somewhere else, how well would it run?" said Jean Bozman, an analyst at IDC.

That IBM has resisted efforts to run its software on alternative platforms comes as no shock to anyone in the tech industry. And it's not alone. Take Apple Inc., for instance. "Apple has done everything that they can to basically squash the Mac clone industry," said Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT Inc. in Hayward, Calif.