Back in the 1980s computer giant IBM narrowly avoided being broken into parts in the same way that phone company Bell had been in the previous decade. Part of the reason for the US government abandoning its antitrust investigation of Big Blue was then president Ronald Reagan’s enthusiasm for the way the company had managed to break into the Japanese market at a time when electronics companies from the Far East were laying waste to American suppliers thanks to their willingness to sell products more cheaply.

In the event, IBM’s reprieve proved to be less effective than its management had hoped. At the start of 1993, the company won the record for the biggest ever corporate loss in US corporate history, at least up to that point. IBM’s weakness proved not to be antitrust lawyers concerned over the way it dominated the mainframe and minicomputer markets, leading to many would-be competitors quitting. The old adage was “no-one got fired for buying IBM”....