In early October a Federal court in Manhattan tossed out an antitrust suit against IBM that had been filed by T3 Technologies of Tampa. The suit was based mainly on tying claims. IBM blocks the use of its mainframe software on IBM-compatible systems that emulate Big Blue's big iron. T3 said this was crooked and also that it knocked the small company out of the business it had pursued selling low-end mainframe clones obtained from Platform Solutions, Inc. PSI had also battled IBM in the courts until IBM bought it. Once PSI had been eaten, T3 no longer had small mainframes to sell, and it felt it had to sue or sink.
The basis of the dismissal was a position taken by IBM that T3 was not a direct rival and thus had no standing to file antitrust charges. T3 doesn't agree and it is trying to appeal that ruling and get its case reinstated, in part because it was allowed to join the PSI action against IBM that ended after IBM bought out PSI.
IBM's takeover of PSI may have been based in part on a political calculation. IBM did not want to be the poster child for the Obama administration's new and possibly active Antitrust Division. And while the DoJ has asked T3 for copies of materials it had gathered during its legal effort, it's impossible to say whether that action is part of a serious effort to get IBM to loosen its grip on mainframe software, a dispassionate review of an issue the government feels obliged to study, or political theater lacking much in the way of sound and fury but sticking with Shakespeare when it comes to what it signifies.
T3 is still hoping for some relief from the EU competition authorities. Chances are good that the EU will be heard from before the year is out, according to a T3 executive who was willing to speculate about the matter. But like the DoJ, T3's posture may also be little more than theater.
Microsoft has put some money into T3, but Microsoft had also helped PSI and it's long since been clear just how far that effort got the wannabe mainframe maker.
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