NEWS & ANALYSIS

Maureen O'GaraNeon Sues IBM for Antitrust

by Maureen O'Gara

No sense pussyfooting around anymore trying to sidestep the legal equivalent of nuclear war.

Texas ISV Neon Enterprise Software, accepting that it’s in a fight to the death with IBM over mainframes, ripped the kid gloves off late Wednesday, amended its pre-Christmas suit against its giant nemesis for tortious interference, business disparagement and unfair competition and charged Blue with antitrust violations.

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Why Choice Matters for Mainframe Customers

OpenMainframe.org Position Paper

The recent news that the US Department of Justice is investigating the IBM mainframe market has resulted in numerous stories and blog posts both for and against the investigation. However, many of the arguments have not addressed the most important question: what do mainframe customers want?
This paper addresses the key issues that impact the users of mainframe technology and why the resolution of these issues is critically important to mainframe customers.

Download the position paper PDF (147K)

Steven FriedmanThe T3 Technologies story

by Steven Friedman, T3 Technologies

For over 15 years, my company was a successful IBM Business Partner. I used to have a thriving company with over 50 employees, nearly 1,000 customers in 28 countries (including 200 customers in 15 European Community states) and a profitable revenue stream earned through selling mainframe solutions to IBM customers. However, now our company is effectively out of business due to the direct actions of the company I used to be closely aligned with: IBM.

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Roger BowlerThe case for opening up the mainframe market

by Roger Bowler, mainframe professional and creator of “Hercules”

I have been following the legal battles between IBM and Platform Solutions Inc. (PSI) and T3 Technologies (T3) over the last couple of years with great interest. As the founder of the Hercules open source mainframe emulator project I feel that we are impacted by many of the same issues that put both PSI and T3 out of business. As a mainframe IT professional, it bothers me that there is no longer any competition in the mainframe platform space.

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Monday
14Dec2009

IBM Facing Lawsuit Related To Mainframe 'Workaround'

(Dow Jones Newswire) By Jessica Hodgson

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) is facing a lawsuit from a small mainframe software maker alleging the technology giant violated competition law by trying to stop its customers using the rival's tools.

Neon Enterprise Software LLC, a Texas-based company, accuses IBM in a lawsuit of "misrepresentation, disparagement, threats of retaliation and baseless litigation," along with its dominance in the mainframe computer market to "crush" Neon.

The lawsuit, filed in a U.S. District Court in Texas, is seeking damages and "disgorgement of profits" from IBM, essentially asking IBM to pay Neon whatever money it made through what Neon is alleging are unfair practices. Chris Reynolds, a partner at Reynolds, Frizzell, Black, Doyle, Allen & Oldham LLP, representing Neon, said the amount of damages sought would depend on the court's judgment.

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