It concluded there were few barriers to entry to this market-- which was at one time dominated by Netscape, now owned by AOL Time Warner (nyse: AOL - news - people)--so that no one could be said to monopolize it.

FORBES: Magazine Article

At the same time Microsoft has been whipping Netscape in the browser wars.

FORBES: Empire of pieces

WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3 and Netscape Navigator were good applications at the time.

FORBES: There's A Big Thing Missing From Microsoft's Office 365

That was the right time for Max to be there since Netscape founder, Marc Andreessen, helped develop the web browser, Mosaic, there in 1993.

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He rejects comparisons to failed browser maker Netscape, and suggestions that Real could run out of time and money before the trial is over.

BBC: NEWS | Business | Caught between Microsoft and Apple

Even the two guys who got it right the first time, Jim Clark and Marc Andreessen of Netscape, are looking a lot less brilliant these days.

FORBES: A Net Uncertain

This is why, last May, it settled a suit by Time Warner, which owns the remains of Netscape, a web-browser firm that Microsoft bulldozed in the 1990s.

ECONOMIST: Face value

Its main rival, Netscape, went on to become a unit of AOL Time Warner (nyse: AOL - news - people ) and though still popular, is mostly consigned to second-place status among Web browsers.

FORBES: Apple Eyes Microsoft's Turf

In some ways, the proposed break-up would put Microsoft in the competitive position it faced in the mid-1990s, when Netscape threatened to develop middleware that could have undermined the dominance of Windows except that this time the challenger would be Microsoft excluding Windows, a firm uniquely equipped (not least with billions of dollars in revenues) to take up the fight.

ECONOMIST: Divide and rule