NEWS & ANALYSIS

EU Commission initiates formal investigations against IBM in two cases of suspected abuse of dominant market position

by Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission

(26 July, 2010)

The European Commission has decided to initiate formal antitrust investigations against IBM Corporation in two separate cases of alleged infringements of EU antitrust rules related to the abuse of a dominant market position (Article 102 TFEU). Both cases are related to IBM's conduct on the market for mainframe computers. The first case follows complaints by emulator software vendors T3 and Turbo Hercules, and focuses on IBM's alleged tying of mainframe hardware to its mainframe operating system. The second is an investigation begun on the Commission's own initiative of IBM's alleged discriminatory behaviour towards competing suppliers of mainframe maintenance services.

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BowlerRoger Bowler Responds to IBM Patent Attack on Open Source

by Roger Bowler Creator of Hercules and Co-founder of TurboHercules

(Posted in News & Blogs section of turbohercules.com on 6 April, 2010)

As many of you know, the company I founded to promote the Hercules open source mainframe emulator, TurboHercules SAS, has filed an antitrust complaint against IBM with the European Commission in Brussels. We are not asking that IBM be subjected to punishing fines or anything like that. We simply want IBM to agree to allow legitimate paying customers of its z/OS mainframe operating system to deploy that software on the hardware platforms of their choice – including, should they so choose, on low-cost servers using Intel or AMD microprocessors and Hercules.

I want to make clear that we undertook this action reluctantly, and only after a long period of reflection during which we reached out to IBM to see if there was some way to resolve our differences amicably. I regret to report that IBM rebuffed our efforts at conciliation, and even added fuel to the fire by launching accusations against Hercules. I would like to take this opportunity to respond to some of those charges.

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The Issues of Competition in Mainframe and Associated Services in India

by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations and Indicus Analytics

Very little is known about the extent and nature of competition in the mainframe and associated services market in India. This is the first study to analyze competition and related issues in the Indian server market, with an extensive focus on mainframe computing.

Download the report PDF (4MB)

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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T3 TECHNOLOGIES TIMELINE

 

1992 T3 Technologies founded, originally as PC COM Inc.
1994 T3 starts selling IBM mainframes as an IBM OEM.
1995 T3 starts selling IBM mainframes as an IBM Business Partner
2000 T3 launches the tServer alternative low-end mainframe based on the FLEX-ES technology from Fundamental Software Inc. (FSI) and licensed IBM system software.
 
2000-2006 tServer becomes the best-selling mainframe under 80 MIPS. Over 600 tServer mainframes are sold to 1000 customers in 28 countries.
 
2002 IBM tells T3 to stop selling competitive mainframes and later terminates T3’s mainframe reseller agreement when T3 refuses to comply.
 
2005 T3 signs a distribution agreement with Platform Solutions Inc. (PSI) and T3 begins development of Liberty – a new 64-bit Itanium-based mainframe platform.
 
2006 IBM decides to not renew FSI’s patent agreement, effectively putting FSI out of business and IBM ceases to license its mainframe software for use on non-IBM hardware.
 
November 2006 T3 ships its first Liberty servers to customers; however IBM refuses to license its software for use on these IBM-compatible mainframes. Without licenses for IBM system software, the Liberty and tServer products are no longer viable.
 
2006 IBM sues PSI for patent infringement rather than license its patents to PSI. PSI countersues IBM for anti-competitive action.
 
2007 PSI files anti-competitive complaint with the European Commission. T3 joins the PSI actions against IBM in the US.
 
July 2008 IBM chooses to buy PSI rather than expose itself to the negative PR of fighting PSI in the courts.
 
August 2008 T3 announces its intention to pursue the legal action against IBM in the US on its own. T3 also announces its intention to file a complaint against IBM with the European Commission and to seek outside investors for future business development.
 
November 2008 Microsoft invests in T3 to assist T3 in developing new solutions for mutual customers.
 
January 2009 T3 Technologies files a formal complaint against IBM with the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition (DG-Comp) in Brussels.
 

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