What Happened on May 20th

Microsoft Corp. and Intuit Inc. agreed to terminate their planned merger in order to avoid a Justice Department charge of violating antitrust laws. In the intervening three years, Microsoft continued to struggle against federal investigation of its dominance in the personal computer software market. Bill Gates' company had originally agreed to acquire Intuit in October 1994 in a deal worth roughly $2 billion but abandoned the plan after the Justice Department began an investigation of whether the move would give Microsoft too much dominance in the personal finance software market.