World War 3.0
Microsoft, the US Government, and the Battle for the New Economy
The Internet Revolution, like all great industrial changes, has made the world's elephantine media companies tremble that their competitors-whether small and nimble mice or fellow elephants-will get to new terrain first and seize its commanding heights. In a climate in which fear and insecurity are considered healthy emotions, corporate violence becomes commonplace. In the blink of an eye-or the time it has taken slogans such as "The Internet changes everything" to go from hyperbole to banality-"creative destruction" has wracked the global economy on an epic scale.
No one has been more powerful or felt more fear or reacted more violently than Bill Gates and Microsoft. Afraid that any number of competitors might outflank them-whether Netscape or Sony or AOL Time…
Ken Auletta inaugurated the Annals of Communications column and profiles for The New Yorker in 1992. This is his thirteenth book. Five of his previous books were national bestsellers, including Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way, Greed and Glory on Wall Street: The Fall of The House of Lehman, and Googled: The End of the World as We Know It. He lives in Manhattan with his wife.