Microsoft’s Missteps Offer Antitrust Lessons for Tech’s Big Four

Of the five biggest tech companies in the U.S., Microsoft is the only one that isn’t currently in the crosshairs of U.S. antitrust authorities. The software giant already took its turn through the regulatory wringer starting two decades ago, a years-long confrontation that resulted in the finding that the Redmond, Wash.-based company had illegally maintained its monopoly for personal-computer operating-system software. The case dealt with the company’s moves to kneecap the Netscape web browser by bundling its own product, Internet Explorer, into Windows, the dominant PC operating system.

A federal judge ordered the company split in two in 2000, a ...