As a result of greater competition in the US computer industry:
employment in the industry is going down.
Refer to the following extract from the passage: And just when IBM is losing ground in one market after another, Intel and Microsoft have emerged …………………………. While IBM is posting losses, Intel’s profits jumped 30%, and Microsoft’s rose 44%.
From these lines, we can conclude option A as the correct answer.
Option B is incorrect as there in no mention of employment going down in the IT industry. There is only a mention of IBM job cuts.
Option C is incorrect as it states the opposite of what is implied in the passage. The author implies that the industry is becoming competitive with Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Motorola and IBM all involved in a highly competitive market in their respective capacities. Monopoly means dominance by one company and this is clearly invalid in the given context.
Option D is the easiest option to reject in the given passage. It goes against the stated fact in the passage: with IBM’s stock at an 11-years low, Microsoft’s value surpassed its old mentor’s for the very first time ($26.76 billion to $26.48 billion) and Intel ($24.3 billion) is not far behind.