DOJ investigating IBM for Antitrust Violation in Mainframe Licensing

The DOJ announced it was investigating allegations that IBM is engaging in anticompetitive conduct by declining to license certain components of its mainframe technology, such as software, to potential competitors. For example, IBM allegedly did not license its software to Platform Solutions, one of several companies working on software to enable smaller servers to mimic the capabilities of mainframes. IBM, of course, denies that its licensing practices are anticompetitive or violate antitrust laws, and the mere refusal to license is usually insufficient to prove wrongdoing.

It is an interesting reminder of how important mainframe technology is, even decades after the PC revolution. According to the NYT, mainframes still comprise 25% of IBM's revenue, and handle 50 billion transactions a day. Indeed, some have noted that the modern "cloud computing" phenomenon is an attempt to recreate the interactivity and functionality of mainframes from the 1960's, when companies remotely used the storage and bandwidth provided remotely by large machines.