The intent was to &quot;cut off Netscape&#x27;s air supply&quot;:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;wp-srv&#x2F;business&#x2F;longterm&#x2F;microsoft&#x2F;stories&#x2F;1998&#x2F;microsoft111398.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;wp-srv&#x2F;business&#x2F;longterm&#x2F;micro...</a><p>Had they succeeded with the IE strategy, ActiveX controls would have the same endemic status as Flash does now, but unimplementable on any browser other than IE.