The conflict between the IT giants Oracle, Microsoft and IBM has reopened concerning the same problem: antitrust policy. The three companies take turn in allying against the third one. After in April IBM and Oracle along with other companies in the IT industry joined forces against Microsoft Europe now it is the turn for Oracle and Microsoft to work against IBM.

Therefore the USA Department of Justice received a reference from a nongovernmental IT association from which Oracle and Microsoft are a part of but not IBM and so decided to start an inquire. IBM is accused of abusing the dominate position it has on the server market and that it practices illegal policies: withdrawing some OS licenses from the clients who didn’t use hardware produced by the group, refusing to give licenses for server’s operating systems for those clients who use Hercules (an open-source software which allows the installation of IBM OS in Intel and AMD stations produced by other companies).

An interesting fact is that at the end of September a Manhattan court decided to deny allegations against IBM lodged by T3 Technologies concerning some antitrust policies. At that moment it was speculated that Microsoft was rigging the accusations and that T3 Technologies are just a mere cloak.

Apparently the US justice took Obama’s declarations regarding antitrust policy investigation very serious.