Silicon Valley Executive Defends Microsoft
By David Lawsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Silicon Valley executive gave a spirited defense of Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) at its antitrust trial Wednesday, calling the software giant a natural monopoly that should be allowed to expand for the benefit of consumers.
Eubanks, chief executive officer of Oblix Inc., is the second of three Microsoft rebuttal witnesses as the trial, now in its 72nd day, winds down.
Asked by a Microsoft lawyer if the firm's personal computer operating system was a ''natural monopoly,'' Eubanks replied: ''Windows is an example of that.''
Monopolies obtained by luck or skill are legal as long as they are not abused. The Justice Department and 19 states allege that Microsoft abused its monopoly position in personal computer operating systems to continue that monopoly and gain advantage in other business areas such as Internet browsers.
Eubanks, former Chief Executive Officer of Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq:SYMC - news), quickly added that he was no lawyer. But he said that software writers ''tend to settle'' on a ''platform,'' and for now Windows is that platform.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was in Washington Wednesday with basketball star Shaquille O'Neal to promote a program encouraging children to safely surf the Internet.
''What Microsoft has done in terms of making Windows better for use on the Internet is a fantastic thing,'' Gates said at the event. ''I'm surprised we have to defend that at all. What we do is great, the competition is great. This is an industry that works very well.''
At the trial, a new filing by the Justice Department showed Gates praising an internal memo, leaked to some reporters in December, as a useful public relations device.
The Justice Department introduced an e-mail in which Gates questioned a company spokesman on why he had restricted media distribution of his Dec. 1, 1998, memo to executive staff.
The memo provided an answer to the government's allegation that Microsoft gave away its Internet Explorer web browser to compete unfairly against Netscape Navigator.
''I am really surprised we restricted the distribution of this so much,'' Gates complained in an e-mail to Greg Shaw, a Microsoft public relations official.
''My comments are the best tool we have to shift the dialogue and get people to understand who gave consumers the fair price for browsing,'' Gates continued.
Shaw replied in another e-mail that the restricted distribution would provide more media interest than issuing a news release.
A Microsoft spokesman dismissed the memos as a ''sideshow.''
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