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Keep Microsoft whole: poll
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May 10, 2000: 2:18 p.m. ET
Many Americans agree Microsoft is a monopoly, but like Gates anyway
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Most Americans oppose the federal government's plan to break up Microsoft although many agree that the software company is in fact a monopoly, a new poll said Wednesday.
The Gallup Organization said that 54 percent of those polled oppose a breakup, while only 34 percent are in favor of the plan. Another 12 percent had no opinion. These opinions surfaced despite the fact that 49 percent of respondents agreed that Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) was a monopoly.
 The federal government and 19 states have alleged Microsoft acted as an illegal monopoly and on April 3, 2000, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that the company violated antitrust laws. The news zapped Microsoft stock, trading now at barely above 52-week lows.
But Chairman Bill Gates' popularity has remained steady over the course of the trial, according to the poll. More than two-thirds of those polled - 69 percent -- said they had a favorable opinion of Gates, with 16 percent saying their opinion was unfavorable. This is consistent with polls from 1999, all of which showed strong ratings for Gates, one of the world's wealthiest men.
Computer users rated Gates even more strongly, with 74 percent of them giving a favorable reading.
While most respondents opposed breaking up Microsoft, 46 percent said such a move would help consumers while 37 percent said it would hurt them. About 7 percent said a breakup would neither help nor hurt and 10 percent had opinion. (To view the full poll results, click here.)
Results of an informal CNNfn poll showed even stronger support for keeping Microsoft together: 62 percent of respondents favored it, while only 34 percent thought the company should be broken up. 61 percent of respondents to the CNNfn poll thought Microsoft stock was a good buy, and 58 percent thought the government's case against the company was no longer relevant.
Microsoft is due to submit its reply to Jackson's ruling late Wednesday. 
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