Microsoft's deal to invest in Apple is what everyone is taking about now in days. The two rival companies meet together once again with a different approach this time: Internet market.

Internet is a very hot issue for all computer companies that want to survive in the next market era. As soon as there is demand for the product, there will be aggressive competitors like Netscape and Explorer in charge of making the right steps for us customers. By Bill Gates investing $150 millions dollars in Apple, this will make Internet Explorer the default browser in the Macintosh Operating System (Infoworld 19). It will deeply affect the two key players in the Internet market: Netscape and Suns.

What hurts more (Netscape) is that Microsoft-Apple will use Explorer to push ActiveX and its distributed object model over Java, COBRA, and Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP) jointly embraced by Oracle, IBM, Suns and Netscape. And if users insist in Java, well, Microsoft has its own version of programming language that can rule over Sun's 100% Pure Java brand.

Netscape has had many problems already. For example, it has difficulty reaching a large corporate accounts with infrastructure products such as mail, directory, and security. Sun's Java is leveling the Internet playing field by reducing Netscape's domination of Internet standards and reducing other supplier's time-to-market challenges. Also, Netscape has weak programs for corporate and independent software developers (Infoworld 19). For all those believers that Netscape is just having a little bad luck, well it is facing deeper financial problems with his key allies. It seems that IBM and Lotus will not support Netscape in their products anymore. IBM will no longer include Netscape browser with Lotus Notes because they made a deal with Microsoft Internet Explorer.

As a project management approach, Microsoft once again will lead the Internet world in a few years from now. Moreover, the Microsoft-Apple deal was not only for competition as people think. In fact, I believe that Bill Gates did this not to help Apple's financial troubles but to help himself from Anti-trust laws. As we know, Microsoft was in trouble for wanting to include only one unique Internet browser in all their operating systems which violated the right of competition by other Internet companies. The key issue is that Microsoft's solely competitor is Apple, right? And if Apple goes down the tubes, who will Microsoft be competing with? No one! Other companies are not big enough to compete with Bill Gates which would make Microsoft a monopoly. This will definitely cause a violation of Anti-trust laws which state that no company can compete alone in a capitalist country. This is the main reason, in my point of view, why Bill Gates is investing in Apple so he would keep off his back federal regulators.

According to Gottheil, Netscape's part from its strategy to provide a comprehensive GroupWare suite on the desktop, which if it had worked, would have been a much bigger problem for Microsoft. But now that this project was not successful, Microsoft is acting ahead on new horizons and new client to support Internet Explorer.
In summary, I believe that Microsoft's investment in Apple was not to dominate only the Internet browser from Netscape but also to keep federal regulators away if Apple falls apart and competition is scarce. Although federal regulators at this time rejected the need for an investigation, Microsoft's dominant position keeps the threat of future investigations alive, according to analysts. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission declined a congressional meeting to see whether Bill Gates was complying with the 1994 agreement. The request for investigation was made by Netscape which said that Microsoft has been given discounts to computer makers that exclusively bundle Microsoft's Web browser with their systems, cutting Netscape out of the market. Any charges alleged where denied by Microsoft but I believe that it is a start for the battle of the Internet world.