US Justice Department investigates IBM mainframe monopoly abuse

The US Justice Department (DoJ) has started an investigation into allegations that International Business Machines (IBM) is stifling competition in the mainframe computers market by not allowing its mainframe operating software to run on non-IBM computers.

The DoJ opened the investigation on the basis of a complaint filed by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) in September, alleging that IBM has virtually strangled its smaller rivals in the mainframe market, since Big Blue, as IBM is often referred to, refuses to license its "Hercules" and other open-source software for installation on machines other than IBM mainframes.

The CCIA, which comprises companies from the computer, IT and telecommunication industry, of which, IBM is not a member, say that IBM was required to license the mainframe technology to competitors under a 1956 consent decree arrived at with the US government.

But since that decree was phased out in 2001, the CCIA says that IBM started to maintain a vice like grip on the mainframe computers market by refusing to allow its operating software to be used on rival computers.

A spokeswoman for the CIAA said yesterday that some member companies of the organisation have received a formal request for information, or a special kind of subpoena used in antitrust investigations known as Civil Investigative Demand (CID).

Tampa, Florida-based T3 Technologies, a dealer of IBM mainframes from 1992 to 2002, which had filed an antitrust suit against IBM in January, alleging that IBM refused to support and license its operating system on mainframe products based on Platform Solutions Inc mainframes, which it was selling, since Platform's mainframes were far cheaper than IBM mainframes, was one such resipient of a CID.