In a tech galaxy that now seems far, far away, everyone was terrified of Bill Gates. He was the Apex Predator of Tech.
You wanted to make software? Microsoft would crush you. You wanted to start an online service? Microsoft would decimate you. You wanted to make a browser to navigate the World Wide Web? Chomp!
It was that last one that finally stopped Mr. Gates and Microsoft. The government accused the company of being a monopoly and of engaging in anticompetitive practices against Netscape and its Navigator browser. In 2001 the government won a landmark case against the company that required it to submit to more oversight and make it easier for other companies to offer competing software.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/opinion/facebook-google-monopolies.html