Antitrust case could be delayed
Microsoft and DOJ attorneys agree to postpone the trial until October 15, but the judge has the final say, a source says.
Representatives for the Justice Department and Microsoft said they are in discussions regarding "case management" issues, but they declined to confirm the agreement. The two sides disclosed the negotiations following a hearing held today in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Those deposition requests were included in subpoenas Microsoft sent last Friday to Sun Microsystems, Netscape Communications, IBM, Oracle, and Novell. They seek information on a broad set of business dealings, including a coalition, or "gang of four" that presumably tried to compete with Microsoft through a host of new products, including a "global Unix," and a Web browser based on Sun's Java programming language.
Other outstanding subpoenas, however, have been requested by the government, the source said.
There was no indication on when Jackson might rule on the request to delay the trial.
One of the key issues in the case is whether Microsoft rewrote its software--folding its Internet Explorer Web browser into its Windows 98 operating system--merely to gain a competitive advantage over Netscape Communications.
It is illegal for a monopoly to bundle two different products in order to force the combined product on consumers. But the practice is all right when the combined product provides new advantages to consumers.
During the court hearing, Judge Jackson repeatedly asked Microsoft attorney John Warden whether Microsoft had improved the products by combining them.
"What advantage is there from having Microsoft integrate Windows and Internet Explorer?" Jackson asked at one point.
Warden explained that the same computer code provided Web browsing capabilities and many other functions. He also described the marketing of the Microsoft browser to America Online, where AOL put the two browsers against each other in a side-by-side test.
"Microsoft won that competition," he said. "Microsoft's victory is how the market works."
But David Boies, arguing for the government, pointed out that on January 8, 1998, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates wrote a memo about AOL.
"In that memo, Mr. Gates records [AOL chairman Steve] Case as saying that Microsoft is behind Netscape, but it's good enough to be in the ballpark," Boies said.
He added that the government plans to present evidence showing that AOL would probably never have chosen the Microsoft product, except that it wanted favorable placement on the Windows "desktop."
Warden replied that AOL did not begin using Internet Explorer until months later, when it was much improved.
Reuters contributed to this report.