<A> Publisher Scores Big With Timing On Microsoft Book
By Mark Boslet
PALO ALTO, Calif. (Dow Jones)--Few publishers have such luck.
On Friday, Henry Holt & Co. made a final publicity push for its insider's view of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) - a book entitled Barbarians Led By Bill Gates: Microsoft from the Inside. Three hundred and fifty copies of the book were dispatched for Monday delivery to key editors and government officials.
The timing was perfect. On Saturday, high-stakes negotiations between Microsoft and officials representing the Justice Department and 20 state attorneys general dissolved.
Then early Monday, Justice officials and the attorneys general filed two broad antitrust lawsuits against the company accusing it of misusing it Windows monopoly and alleging a pattern of anticompetitive actions.
What better way to turn heads toward this surprisingly level-headed account of Microsoft's business practices over the past decade and a half.
The book has received a cool reception at Microsoft, largely because of its co-authors. It was written by Marlin Eller, a former Microsoft software developer, and Jennifer Edstrom, the estranged daughter of Microsoft's chief publicist, Pam Edstrom.
But the narrative's less fiesty demeanor doesn't mean it has nothing to offer. In fact, the 256-page [book] is particularly relevant, given the antitrust suit and the Justice Department's legal action late last year accusing the company of forcing its Explorer browser on computer makers interested in selling Windows 95.
Microsoft has said the two products were integrated into one, meaning that they couldn't be separated. But Barbarians Led By Bill Gates contends that it wasn't until Internet Explorer 4.0, which shipped in October 1997, that the two products were truly integrated.
The book, which is based on interviews with Microsoft developers, many of whom remain at the company today, also questions Microsoft's claim that browser integration was planned from the start.
"I think it was a mistake to not just include the browser in Windows 95," the book reports development manager Lin Shaw as saying in September 1997. When asked if the company had discussions about including the browser in Windows 95, Shaw is quoted as replying, 'No, not even - even at the time when we shipped we were testing with the Netscape (Communications Corp. (NSCP)) browser, and it wasn't even close."
The book, which is to reach stores May 20, also casts an unflattering spotlight on some Microsoft business practices.
In response to Go Corp. in the pen computing market, co-author Eller recounts a conversation with a Microsoft colleague: "This wasn't a thing about making money," he said. "This was all about 'block that kick.' We were on a special team. We were preventing Go from running away with the market."
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