Just when it thought it was, effectively, the power of the computer era, Microsoft has had the wind well and truly taken out of its sails.

Having bullied and browbeaten some of the biggest names in computer hardware, company bosses evidently felt taking on the US government and Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson would be simply another ordinary day's work. But its aggressive approach to the latest antitrust dispute failed to force the judge or the prosecution onto the back foot. Instead it is Microsoft which has taken a pummelling.

Apart altogether from the findings of fact made by the judge, the arrogant - some say insolent - approach of company executives to the court during the case has taken some of the lustre off its reputation. After all, if one of the world's largest companies, run by the world's richest man, can misjudge its approach so spectacularly, what does it say for the way it conducts the rest of its business?