In The Pay of Foundations: How U.S. power elite foundations fund a `parallel left' media network--Part 19

Foundation funding Democracy Now! owns Microsoft monopoly stock.

In The Pay of Foundations—Part 19

How U.S. power elite and liberal establishment foundations fund a “parallel left” media network of left media journalists and gatekeepers.

In 2005, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! Productions a "charitable" grant of $150,000 [equal to over $194,000 in 2018] for “general support,” the Glaser Progress Foundation still owned over $5.6 million worth of Microsoft monopoly corporate stock; and in 2006, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! a grant of $100,000 [equal to over $125,000 in 2018], the value of the 215,000 shares of Microsoft corporate stock that the Glaser Progress Foundation continued to own had now increased to over $6.4 million [equal to over $8 million in 2018].

In 2008, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! another grant of $100,000, the value of the Glaser Progress Foundation’s share of Microsoft monopoly corporate stock was over $3.8 million; and in 2009, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! yet another grant of $100,000, the Glaser Progress Foundation still also owned over $6 million worth of Microsoft corporate stock.

Between 2010 and 2014, the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! Productions 5 additional grants, totaling $250,000; and in 2014 the Glaser Foundation still owned over $3.1 million worth of Microsoft monopoly corporate stock.

In addition, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! another $50,000 grant in 2015, it still owned over $1.9 million worth of Microsoft stock; and in 2016, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave Democracy Now! yet another $50,000 grant, the Glaser Foundation still owned $810,000 worth of Microsoft monopoly corporate stock.

But on Dec. 20, 2016, Reuters reported that Microsoft had accepted from the U.S. War Machine’s Department of Defense “a $927 million contract to provide technical support to the Defense Information Systems Agency [DISA].” According to a Dec. 21, 2016 Zacks.com article by Madeleine Johnson:

“…The company's contract is noncompetitive, single-award, firm-fixed, and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity.

“Under the contract, Microsoft will provide consulting services that include software developers and product teams…as well as the firm's premier support services like tools and knowledge centers and problem resolution assistance from developers.

“Microsoft's contract with DISA comes in addition to its huge deal with the U.S. Department of Defense earlier this year, which will move all of the federal agency's 4 million employees to Windows 10 within a year, as well as purchasing large quantities of laptops and other hardware….”

And according to DISA’s own website:

“As it enters the second decade of the new century, DISA stands as an operationally focused combat support agency, providing joint and combined warfighting command and control and information technology capabilities. DISA engineers, develops, maintains, and operates a global net-centric enterprise in direct support to joint and coalition warfighters, national-level leaders, and other mission partners across the full spectrum of operations.”

In addition, an Oct. 6, 2016 Business Insider article by Sam Shead noted  that “Zack Weisfeld, the general manager of Microsoft Global Accelerators, said Microsoft had grown its R. and D team in Israel to about 1,000 people since it opened up its first office in the country 25 years ago,.”—despite the call by most U.S. antiwar movement activists for U.S. corporations like Microsoft to support the Palestinian solidarity movement’s BDS campaign.

Nor surprisingly, during the period between 2001 and 2015 when the foundation set up by former Microsoft Vice-President Glaser owned millions of dollars worth of Microsoft monopoly stock while funding Democracy Now!, the total annual compensation that Democracy Now! co-host and producer Goodman received from her “non-profit” and parallel left media firm increased from less than $36,000 [equal to around $50,000 in 2018] in 2002 to over $176,000 in 2015, according to Democracy Now! Productions's  Form 990 financial filing for 2015.

Also, not surprisingly, in addition to owning millions of dollars of Microsoft stock between 2001 and 2015, RealNetworks Inc. CEO Glaser’s Glaser Progress Foundation has also owned millions of dollars worth of his own corporation’s stock during this same period. For example, in 2006 over $20 million worth of RealNetworks stock was owned by the Glaser Progress Foundation; and over $1.9 million worth of RealNetworks stock (as well as over $600,000 worth of Facebook Inc. corporate stock) was still owned by longtime Democracy Now! funder and Real Networks CEO Glaser’s foundation in 2015.

In December 2016, Glaser’s Glaser Progress Foundation still owned 459,101 shares of RealNetworks corporate stock, which was then worth over $2.2 million; and Glaser, individually, still owned 12,970,100 shares of RealNetworks corporate stock in February 2018.

NY Times Company Director's Ariel Investments: Owns 19 percent of Democracy Now! funder's firm.

But 7,236,402 shares of RealNetworks corporate stock in December 2017 (equal to over 19 percent of all RealNetworks corporate stock) was also owned by Chicago-based Ariel Investments—whose Chair and CEO John Rogers sits on the boards of directors of the New York Times Company corporate media firm, McDonald’s, Excelon and the Barack Obama Foundation. In addition, a former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama and current Lyft corporate board member, Valerie Jarett, sits next to New York Times Company board member Rogers on the board of directors of the Ariel Investments firm that owns nearly 20 percent of the stock of Democracy Now! funder Glaser’s RealNetworks.

Directors of Ariel Investments/RealNetworks Stockowners sit on Obama Foundation board.

And other corporate Establishment folks—like Microsoft Corporation Engineering Director Chris Jones, former Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Corporate Development Bruce Jafffee and a board member of the UK’s Daily Mail right-wing and pro-war media conglomerate named Dominique Trempont—have, coincidentally, also been sitting next to RealNetworks CEO/Chair and Democracy Now! funder Glaser on the RealNetworks corporate board in recent years.

UK Daily Mail  board member: Sits on Democracy Now! funder's RealNetworks board

Yet most folks who listen or watch the parallel left Democracy Now! news show that gets aired on 1,440 stations each weekday don’t think Democracy Now! funders should be involved in business relationships with these kinds of corporate establishment folks. (end of part 19)

In The Pay of Foundations: How U.S. power elite foundations fund a `parallel left' media network--Part 18

Democracy Now! foundation funder: Owns Microsoft/RealNetworks stock

In The Pay of Foundations—Part 18

How U.S. power elite and liberal establishment foundations fund a “parallel left” media network of left media journalists and gatekeepers.

Randall Rothenberg’s Aug.1,1999 Wired magazine article indicated that longtime Democracy Now! funder Glaser developed a “strategic alliance” between his RealNetworks Inc. and Bill Gates’s Microsoft in 1997:

“Bill Gates…eventually came to understand that his former protégé was on to something - something he wanted….In 1997,…Microsoft was becoming a… competitive threat. .Glaser quickly arranged a Friday evening meeting with two Microsoft senior executives, Paul Maritz and Greg Maffei…A strategic alliance was quickly cemented, which allowed Microsoft to license, for $30 million, Real's version 4.0 source code and bundle the client with Internet Explorer. The source code would enable Microsoft to make software capable of playing and serving the enormous amount of Web content available in Real's format. Microsoft spent another $30 million for a 10 percent stake in Real….”

DemocracyNow! funder's firm formed "strategic alliance" with Microsoft monopoly in 1997

As Amy Kover’s 2000 Fortune magazine article noted, in 1997 “Glaser's most richly layered relationship” was “with Microsoft;” and “his relationship with Microsoft seemed fine--the software giant even bought a 10% stake in Real in 1997.”

But after Microsoft “delivered a killing blow” to RealNetworks Inc.’s “main revenue source” by releasing “its own, free version of the Real server,” according to the 1999 Wired magazine article, former Microsoft VP Glaser then testified before a U.S. Senate Committee on July 23, 1998 that “I believe Microsoft is taking actions that create obstacles to the freedom and openness of the Internet” and that “What Microsoft is doing is wrong and must be stopped.” And “a few months later, Microsoft withdrew its investment” in RealNetworks, according to the 2000 Fortune magazine article.

Yet despite Glaser’s 1998 assertion that “What Microsoft is doing is wrong and must be stopped,” his Glaser Progress Foundation was still willing to own 107,520 shares of Microsoft stock, worth $7,123,200 [equal to over $10 million in 2018] in 2001, according to its Form 990 financial filing for 2001, when the Glaser Progress Foundation gave the Institute for Media Analysis a $40,000 [equal to over $56,000 in 2018] grant to help fund “Democracy Now! `War and Peace Report.’

And from its 2.107,545 shares of RealNetworks stock that was worth $12,518,817 [equal to over $17.7 million in 2018] and its investment in Microsoft monopoly stock--his Glaser Progress Foundation received $764,356 [equal to over $1 million in 2018] in dividends in 2001.

Since Gates’ Microsoft monopoly was apparently still now threatening the ability of Glaser’s RealNetworks firm to make big money from the digital media market in the early 21st-century, in late 2003 Glaser’s RealNetworks lawyers filed a lawsuit against Microsoft. As Joris Evers and Robert McMillan observed in a Dec.18, 2003 IDG News Service article that was reposted on the PC World magazine’s website:

“RealNetworks has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging the software giant has illegally used its power as a monopoly to control the digital media market.…RealNetworks accuses Microsoft of unlawful tactics including product bundling, restrictive licensing, exclusive dealing, predatory pricing, refusing to sell unbundled operating systems and discriminatory disclosure and withholding of information needed to interoperate with the Windows operating system, according to a copy of the complaint. The lawsuit seeks to recover damages lost because of `Microsoft's illegal conduct,’ according to statement attributed to Rob Glaser, RealNetworks' chair and CEO. He is a former Microsoft official… In 1997, Microsoft had virtually no presence in the digital media space, but by 2002, Microsoft's `anticompetitive conduct’ enabled it to surpass RealNetworks' market share for media players and usage in the U.S., RealNetworks says in its complaint…” 

In response to RealNetworks’ lawsuit, however, Microsoft agreed to pay Democray Now! show funder Glaser’s RealNetworks media firm a settlement of $761 million in 2005 and, according to Elizabeth Montalbano’s Oct. 11, 2005 IDG News Service article that PC World reposted on its website,  Microsoft and RealNetworks then “forged a partnership to promote digital music and games in three agreements.” As the same 2005 article also observed:

“Microsoft will pay RealNetworks $460 million up front to resolve all damages and claims in the suit, and the companies will agree to a series of technology licenses and commitments that will give RealNetworks long-term access to Windows Media technologies to enhance its own media software, according to the companies. Under the terms of the deals, the companies…will jointly promote and market RealNetworks' music subscription service, Rhapsody, on Microsoft MSN. In addition, Microsoft will offer RealNetworks' digital games through MSN Games and Xbox Live Arcade for XBox 360…Microsoft Chairman and Chief Architect Bill Gates said that the settlement spells an opportunity for Microsoft and RealNetworks to collaborate on innovative ways to deliver digital media to consumers on a variety of devices….

“Microsoft also will pay RealNetworks $301 million in cash and provide services over 18 months to support RealNetworks' product development, distribution, and marketing under the music and game agreements. At the same time, RealNetworks will support MSN Search, and the two companies together will promote the use of Windows Media technologies with RealNetworks' Rhapsody to Go service, according to the companies. In addition, RealNetworks also will support Microsoft's Windows Media DRM (digital rights management) format in its RealPlayer media software, a move that helps Microsoft evolve Windows as the platform for a digital media hub, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft.”

And despite his firm’s 2003 lawsuit and his 2003 assertion that Microsoft was still engaging in “illegal conduct” in the early 21st-century, in 2004—when Democracy Now! Productions was given a grant of $100,000 [equal to over $133,000 in 2018] by the Glaser Progress Foundation—Glaser’s foundation still owned 215,000 shares of Microsoft stock, worth $5,745,869 [equal to over $7.6 million in 2018], from which it received a net investment income of $744,197 [equal to over $995,000 in 2018], according to the Glaser Progress Foundation’s Form 990 financial filing for 2004.

DemocracyNow! funder: Received $761 Million from/Partnered with Microsoft in 2005

Thus, after helping to fund  Democracy Now! between 2001 and 2004 with 4 grants, totaling $300,000, former Microsoft VP Glaser’s Glaser Progress Foundation, continued to own millions of dollars worth of Microsoft monopoly corporate stock at the same time it funded Democracy Now!; and Glaser's RealNetworks firm continue to collaborate on a business level with Gates' Microsoft monopoly.. Yet, not surprisingly, Democracy Now! did not air many news segments between 2005 and 2018 that examined how Glaser obtained his personal wealth or how his Glaser Progress Foundation obtained its grant money.  (end of part 18)

In The Pay of Foundations: How U.S. power elite foundations fund a `parallel left' media network--Part 17

Democracy Now! Funder Glaser's RealNetworks Inc. Partnered With Microsoft

In The Pay of Foundations—Part 17

How U.S. power elite and liberal establishment foundations fund a “parallel left” media network of left media journalists and gatekeepers.

Even after Democracy Now! funder Glaser finally left Microsoft in 1993 to establish his own for-profit company which, according to Robert Reid’s Architects of the Web book, he “started ramping up” in 1994, that was initially called “Progressive Networks” (but renamed RealNetworks Inc. in 1997), the former Microsoft VP continued to be connected on a business level to Gates, Microsoft and current or former Microsoft executives in the late 1990s. As Randall Stross’s The Microsoft Way book noted in 1996:

“…Among Gates’s advisors, Rob Glaser made the biggest early bet on the Internet…In late 1993, after 10 years, he left Microsoft as a full-time employee and temporarily continued on a part-time, contractual basis while he founded Progressive Networks…”

According to James Wallace’s 1997 Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race To Control Cyberspace book:

“[In September 1993]…Gates phoned, and the two met at Gates’s office to talk about Glaser doing some consulting work on the Marvel project headed by Siegelman. Gates said the work would be only for a few months and no more than 10 to 15 hours a week. Glaser accepted the assignment, even though at the time he was busy preparing a business plan for his own company. He had helped recruit …Siegelman to Microsoft…

“But Gates had another assignment for Glaser in addition to the consulting work on what would become the Microsoft Network. He wanted Glaser to work directly for him, helping evaluate whether Microsoft should create an alliance with cable-TV titans Time Warner and Tele-Communications Inc….Now, Gates’s vision of Microsoft’s dominance included the home television using Microsoft’s software, too…Glaser made 2 rounds of recommendations to Gates… At Microsoft’s insistence, Glaser would not be…specific in an interview about his recommendations…Even though Glaser was no longer working at Microsoft, he and Siegelman had talked several times since that day in mid-September when Gates had asked Glaser to evaluate Microsoft’s on-line service and how it fit with the Internet…Glaser…formed his own company, called Progressive Networks. Several of his Microsoft pals…became investors…”

Charles Ferguson’s 1999 High Stakes, No Prisoners book also recalled:

“In August 1995…Rob Glaser, who had just resigned from Microsoft, visited the Electronic Frontier Foundation…Glaser used Mosaic and the Web for the first time and was impressed. A month later, Glaser was hired by Gates as a consultant to advise on Web/Internet issues…Then Rob Glaser founded Progressive Networks to develop `streaming’ audio technology to permit large-scale audio distribution over the Internet. Glaser was a former Microsoft executive who had recently consulted to Gates on precisely these subjects…Microsoft bought an equity stake in RealNetworks…”

And according to the 1997 Architects of the Web book:

“Rob’s vice president of software development was Phil Barrett…Phil…ran `a couple of product development teams’ over at Microsoft…Rob called a compression-expert that he knew from Microsoft days…The core notions behind Real Audio were fixed in no time…Rob settled firmly on the notion that Progressive would be a for-profit company…He decided that the company…would sell the software that served Real Audio files over the Internet (the Real Audio Server)…Real Audio debuted on the Web on April 10, 1995, along with content from ABC News, National Public Radio [NPR] and others…Within 2 days of Real Audio’s launch, Progressive announced that Microsoft…had agreed to distribute the Real Audio Player with their browser software…By the summer of 1996, Real Audio accounted for an extraordinary 85 percent share of the Web’s audio content…

“Rob…works hard to position himself as a partner, not competitor, to…two important companies. Microsoft is in fact one of Progressive’s biggest customers. This, plus its crosstown location and the fact that Rob has 10 years of relationship to draw on there (including one with the Boss), makes it easy for him to keep the lines of communication and diplomacy open…”

Coincidentally, A co-founder of Glaser’s Progressive Networks/RealNetworks Inc. in 1993 and 1994, David Halperin, had previously worked as former Democratic Johnson Administration Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s research assistant in 1985 and 1986; and, between 1991 and 1993, the co-founder of Glaser’s Real Networks firm worked as a counsel to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.  In addition, between 1997 and 2001, Halperin later worked as the special assistant to the president for national security affairs and director for speechwriting at the National Security Council in the Clinton White House.

Ex-Clinton White House Staff Assistant David Halperin: Co-founded RealNetworks

According to an Aug. 1, 1999 Wired magazine article by Randall Rothenberg:  

“The product of a suburban New York prep school favored by…liberals… Glaser may have seemed like an atypical Microsoftie…. In 1993, after rising to become the company's youngest vice president and gaining a reputation as a demanding boss, Glaser lost a bureaucratic tussle over control of the company's multimedia operations to Nathan Myhrvold, prompting Glaser to resign.

“With a Yale friend, David Halperin, Glaser hatched vague plans for a company that would link television to the nascent Internet...Glaser, with some of his Microsoft millions, quickly hired a trio of engineers to develop the software…. Not long after, the two demonstrated the system to an informal group of liberal advisers at a Washington, DC, hotel…. his friends convinced him to drop the politics, focus on streaming, and donate the resulting profits to their favored causes….Lotus founder Mitch Kapor and Mike Slade, who'd left Microsoft…were early investors. Kapor also introduced Glaser to the venture capital firm Accel Partners. Glaser, who retains 40 percent of his company (currently valued in excess of $1.5 billion [in 1999]), sold more than 10 percent to Accel for $5 million….Shares …have risen almost tenfold since the public offering in late 1997… In fiscal 1998, software licensing fees - primarily from server software - were $47 million. Eighty-five percent of streaming media broadcasts, Real says, use its technology [in 1999]…” 

In a Sept. 4, 2000 Fortune magazine article, Amy Kovner indicated how Glaser’s RealNetworks Inc. firm made some big money in the late 1990s (when its co-founder, David Halperin, was working as a special assistant to Democratic President Clinton for national security affairs):
   
“…Glaser has been expanding RealNetworks' reach into every nook and cranny of the digital-media terrain….Real firmly dominates the $900 million streaming-media business. Over 85% of the streaming content on the Web comes in Real's format. The company has at least four revenue sources, ranging from digital-media players to content-delivery networks. Its sales have grown 135% a year, reaching $131 million in 1999, when Real managed the undot-commy feat of turning a $7 million profit….

“If you're wondering how RealNetworks makes any money at all, you're not alone. … First off, more than 1% of the people who download the RealPlayer…actually buy a souped-up version known as the RealPlayerPlus. At $29.99 a pop, Real has raked in about $40 million from that tiny sliver of users. Real also makes money from the Websites whose songs you listen to….About 600,000 Websites use Real to deliver their audio and video content, accounting for about a quarter of Real's revenues…Last quarter, Real's ad revenues…increased by 350%, to more than $14 million. …`We've really benefited from being able to show streaming-media ads,’ says Lucy Mohl, the head of programming for RealNetworks and a former movie critic for NBC…So Real is rolling in dough. …CNN.com and ABC are both major buyers of Real technology….”

But Randall Rothenberg’s Wired magazine article by Randall Rothenberg article also contained the following reference in 1999 to the RealNetworks Inc. CEO whose tax-exempt Glaser Progress Foundation has been funding the parallel left Democracy Now!  show since 2001:

“Here's what else Glaser knows: The downloadable revolution isn't simply about music…Anything so disruptive is, ultimately, about power, and Glaser is perfectly comfortable with that: His goal is nothing less than ruling the multibillion-dollar future of broadband…. Rob Glaser built his streaming empire...in no small part upon a mastery of the politics necessary…”

And, as David Postman’s July 26, 2004 Seattle Times article, titled “RealNetworks CEO Donates Big Bucks To Politics,” observed in 2004:

 “…So far this year, Glaser has given more than $1 million…making him the top donor in Washington state and one of the most generous givers of any political persuasion in the nation...Through his representatives, Glaser declined to be interviewed for this story….Glaser was an early supporter of America Coming Together (ACT), one of the biggest of the new independent political groups allying themselves with Democrats this year. Glaser has donated $750,000 to ACT and persuaded friends to give as well. When Bill Clinton visited town to promote his book, he had dinner with Glaser...His friends work for the State Department — or did during the Clinton-Gore years…Glaser met with Soros at his Long Island home to discuss funding America Coming Together...RealNetworks has been a political incubator of sorts. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., worked there between her 1994 loss of a congressional seat and her 2000 Senate victory. She largely financed her campaign using money she made at RealNetworks… In 2000, Glaser began to give more serious money — about $95,000, including $50,000 to the Democratic National Committee….He has helped fund Democracy Now…” (end of part 17)

In The Pay of Foundations: How U.S. power elite foundations fund a `parallel left' media network--Part 16

Democracy Now! Funder/Ex-Microsoft VP Glaser Partnered With IBM

In The Pay of Foundations—Part 16

How U.S. power elite and liberal establishment foundations fund a “parallel left” media network of left media journalists and gatekeepers. 

Multi-billionaire Bill Gates and Democracy Now! Productions funder Rob Glaser’s Microsoft had personally enriched both businessmen during the 1980s period, when Microsoft partnered with the transnational corporation, IBM, for 9 years; and when Microsoft apparently also engaged in monopolistic business practices. According to Gary Rivlin’s 1999 The Plot To Get Bill Gates book:

“IBM and Microsoft weren’t that different. At Microsoft they were still company men…IBM…had taken Gates’s measure and deemed him…its kind of man…The chairman of IBM knew Gates’s mother because both served on the national board of United Way…So eager was Gates to remain on good terms with IBM that in 1985 or 1987 he offered Big Blue a 30 percent stake in Microsoft. Executives at IBM brushed aside the offer…”

James Wallace and Jim Erickson’s 1992 book, Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire also recalled: 

“…IBM chief executive John Opel…knew Mary Gates, having served with her on the national board of United Way…Whether this United Way connection helped Microsoft get the IBM deal is not clear. Opel…won’t talk…In early November of 1980, the corporate…couple officially signed the paperwork. Microsoft would develop the `software for IBM’s first personal computer and supply the vital disk operating system or DOS…Chairman Bill sold 5 percent of Microsoft for a million dollars to Technology Venture Investors, a venture capital firm in Menlo, California…David Marquardt, a general partner in TVI, was made a director of Microsoft’s new board…The company went public…in 1986…As the IBM PC gained in popularity, more and more programmers wrote software for that machine and for the operating system Gates had acquired…”

And according to Randall E. Stross’s 1996 The Microsoft Way book:

“The great stroke of luck that provided Microsoft with 10 very good years came in 1980 when it signed a contract with IBM to provide the operating system that would be used on the IBM Personal Computer, introduced the next year…Microsoft, which itself did not have an operating system to offer, bought another, still smaller company’s operating system software to adapt for the project. The contract…worked greatly in Microsoft’s favor. The terms permitted Microsoft to sell the operating system to other companies and to consumers, but IBM, effectively could not…Microsoft’s rivals have raised questions of monopoly that staff members of the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department have largely accepted…Gates is remembered as the precociously outspoken advocate for commercializing the distribution of software.”

James Wallace’s Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race To Control Cyberspace book also noted in 1997:

“…Microsoft and IBM…in August of 1985…signed a long-term joint agreement that guaranteed the continuation of DOS and IBM…At the time, Gates said it was `the biggest contract’ Microsoft had ever signed…Microsoft had become the computer industry’s Standard Oil in the late 20th century…During…November 1989…Microsoft and IBM had jointly issued a…news release, titled `IBM and Microsoft expand partnership…’…FTC staff believed that the agreement between IBM and Microsoft smacked of anti-competitive collusion, and the investigation was on…”

The Microsoft Way book provided an example of how Democracy Now! Productions funder Glaser worked with IBM during his 10 years as a Microsoft “company man” and as Multi-Billionaire Gates’ “trusted lieutenant” during the 1980s:

“In late 1988, IBM executives told Microsoft they wanted to try once again to crack the home personal computer market…Gates suggested that the machine be equipped with an integrated CD-ROM drive and sound card…IBM accepted the suggestion…Gates assigned a team of Microsoft software engineers to work with IBM…Gates had assigned Rob Glaser to be his principal multimedia advisor…He was given senior responsibility by Gates soon after joining the company…Glaser suggested to Gates that Microsoft should launch what Glaser called a `virtual standard’ for multimedia that could be used in all-IBM compatible personal computers…Gates gave his approval…Gates…sent Rob Glaser…off on assignments to learn about new strategic problems--go figure it out’ was the injunction Gates would use—and then report back to him…”

Charles Ferguson’s 1999 book, High Stakes, No Prisoners, described how Microsoft had apparently increased its profitability and power during the 1980s and early 1990s, when Democracy Now! funder Glaser was a Microsoft vice-president:

“The ultimate source of Microsoft power is its monopoly control of the software platform used by PC applications—Windows… Microsoft even owns an equity stake in Apple, has rights to all of Apple’s intellectual property…and holds at least 50 percent market share in application software for the MAC…Microsoft…exploits its monopoly positions ruthlessly…Microsoft’s predatory behavior…, false dealings, and strategic use of monopoly power are integral to its ability to create further monopolies…”

And James Wallace and Jim Erickson’s Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire book had noted in 1992:

“…By mid-April of 1991, Microsoft was forced to acknowledge…that the FTC was looking into allegations that the company `has monopolized or attempted to monopolize the market for operating systems, operating environment, computer software and consumer peripherals for personal computers’…Microsoft has become notorious…not just for capitalizing on the technological advances of others, but, as some claim, for predatory pilfering. They complain that Microsoft repeatedly approaches small companies promising new products, ostensibly to talk about a partnership. After Microsoft is given a glimpse of how the software works, it suddenly loses interest in the deal—only to announce later that it has been working on surprisingly similar, but competing software…At the heart of the FTC probe is…whether or not Microsoft’s dominant position has chilled competition and thus hurt consumers…” (end of part 16)