ALL EYES ON MICROSOFT; FIRM'S WORTH FELT BY INVESTORS FROM NEARLY EVERY SECTOR.

Byline: Jeff Brown Knight Ridder Newspapers

Any business executive will tell you that his chief goal is to dominate his competitors - to increase his share of the market and gain the ability to raise prices.

And, if you believe in a free market, that competitive drive is good for shareholders and consumers - up to a point.

Now a federal judge has ruled in a government antitrust case that Microsoft Corp. has passed that point, becoming a predatory monopolist that stifles competition, leaves consumers with products that aren't as good as they could be and charges more than it could in a healthier market with more producers slugging it out on a fair footing.

In releasing his findings of fact after the stock market closed Friday, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson was not particularly concerned about Microsoft shareholders. But, obviously, they, too, have much at stake in the case. Still to come, probably next year, is a ruling on whether Microsoft violated antitrust law and, if so, any remedies that could affect the company's future and stock price.

Microsoft shares fell $1.625 to $89.9375 on Monday.

Microsoft's direct investors aren't the only ones with much at stake. Many people who wouldn't think of doing that would be surprised to learn they too are shouldering the risk of a Microsoft meltdown if there eventually is a Draconian remedy, such as a breakup.

Do you have a pension plan at work? There's a good chance the plan owns Microsoft stock, one of the most widely owned issues in the world. Do you own shares in a mutual fund or have an investment-style life insurance policy? Then you probably own some there.

Many of the most prominent, actively managed mutual funds have huge Microsoft stakes. The Fidelity Magellan fund, for instance, owned more than 41 million Microsoft shares at the end of June, about 1 percent of Microsoft's outstanding shares.

Indeed, even the investors who are most averse to ``playing'' the market - the index fund investors - are heavily involved in Microsoft. That's because Microsoft is the most dominant stock in the index tracked by the most popular of these funds, those that mirror the Standard & Poor's 500.

Because it has the largest market capitalization in that index (stock price times number of shares), it accounts for nearly 4 percent of the index's value, even though it's just one of 500 stocks in the index. And because Microsoft has been a superb performer, it is a major reason that index has marched to a succession of records.

On Nov. 1, Microsoft was added to the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average, accounting for about 4 percent of that indicator's value. So Microsoft's fate will now affect movements in the Dow as well as funds and other indexed investments that track the Dow, such as ``Dow Diamonds'' traded on the American Stock Exchange.

And, of course, Microsoft has long been the biggest player in the Nasdaq index. Microsoft accounts for nearly 12 percent of that index's value, although there are more than 4,700 other stocks in the index.

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PHOTO (color) Charles Molineaux of CNN points to figures regarding trading in shares of Microsoft.

Lynsey Addario/Associated Press