Akademik

n.

Nickname for the resulting companies should the U.S. government decide to break up Microsoft into smaller units. (Cf. Baby Bells: the companies created after the breakup of AT&T's telephone monopoly.)

"If Microsoft does not compromise, the Justice Department might be forced to embrace a heavy-handed solution such as regulating Microsoft as a utility (deeming Windows the modern equivalent of railroad terminals) or breaking the company up into 'Baby Bills."

— Editorial, "Bill Gates is Wrong," The Los Angeles Times