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Wednesday, Sep. 2, 1998
U.S. accuses Gates of selective memory loss
Microsoft CEO faces questioning today on tactics used toward Apple, Intel
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The government briefly outlined new allegations Tuesday that Microsoft acted illegally toward several industry rivals, including Intel and Apple Computer, as it urged a judge not to throw out its antitrust case.
The government also expressed its frustration at what it called the ``astonishing lack of recall'' by Gates and other key executives during recent pretrial depositions. Lawyers questioned Gates over two days last week near Seattle.
``Executives who are stated to be the author of documents claim not to remember writing them,'' the government said. ``Executives who are the stated recipients claim not to remember them. And both claim not to know what the documents mean.''
In a pointed reference to Gates, who will be questioned again today at his corporate headquarters by Justice Department lawyer David Boies, the government complained that Gates ``displayed a particular failure of recollection at his deposition.''
Microsoft bristled at the suggestion that Gates was stone-walling. At times during last week's questioning, Gates told lawyers he couldn't specifically remember receiving particular e-mail messages, which the government had obtained under civil subpoena.
``Bill Gates gets over 100 e-mails on a slow day, so it's not surprising that he can't specifically recall receiving one e-mail out of the hundreds of thousands he has received in the past four years,'' company spokesman Mark Murray said.
The new claims involving Intel, Apple and RealNetworks don't substantively broaden the government's case, which is just three weeks from its Sept. 23 trial date. But the government cited them to illustrate what it described as a pattern by Microsoft ``to divide the market and restrict or eliminate competition.''
Nestled within a single paragraph of the 89-page court filing are claims that Microsoft:
Tried to dissuade computer chip-maker Intel from continuing to develop software.
Tried to convince Apple to stop selling its competing QuickTime multimedia software for Windows. ``Multimedia is one area where Apple and Microsoft have some disagreements,'' Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton said, ``but we're trying to work together to resolve them.''
Wanted promises from RealNetworks that it wouldn't share its technologies with Microsoft competitors. RealNetworks makes software to let people listen to audio and watch video across the Internet.
Most of the filing accuses Microsoft of scheming to smother the market for a rival Internet browser by Netscape and trying to kill in its infancy a new technology, called Java, that threatened to supplant Windows as the world's dominant operating system.
The government said Microsoft acted ``at the specific and pointed direction of Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.''
The government also said Microsoft tried to limit distribution of Netscape's browser by Apple - the most popular alternative operating system to Windows. But it excised details of those alleged agreements because they involved corporate trade secrets, which under a court order can't be disclosed in the case.
The government said the sections it couldn't disclose about Apple ``are illustrative of how far Microsoft was willing to go to limit Netscape's opportunities and to stifle Java.''
Microsoft bought a $150 million stake in Apple during August of last year, and in return Apple promised to make Microsoft's browser the easiest choice for accessing the Internet from a Macintosh.
``Apple is a company that has a partnership with Microsoft that has produced a lot of great products for Macintosh computers,'' said Cotton, Apple's spokeswoman. ``As partners we agree on a lot of issues and we disagree from time to time.''
The government court papers were in response to an earlier request by Microsoft that U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson throw out the most important parts of the antitrust case.
Both sides will argue in court Sept. 11 whether the case should be dismissed.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web