i still think ckfr will be #1 with msft #2
but here is the competition:
October 19, 1998
America Online Gives Prosecutors
New Evidence in Microsoft Case
By JOHN R. WILKE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- America Online Inc. has provided prosecutors with unexpected new evidence that could complicate Microsoft Corp.'s defense in the historic antitrust trial that begins Monday, lawyers and industry executives involved in the case said.
The evidence, produced by AOL in recent days in response to a subpoena, could support one of the most potent charges against Microsoft -- that the software giant illegally sought to stifle competition from Netscape Communications Corp. in the hot market for Internet-browser software.
One memo by an AOL executive offers an account of a June 21, 1995, meeting between Microsoft and Netscape that will be a flashpoint in the trial. Details of the meeting were provided to the AOL executive by a Netscape engineer the day after the meeting took place, according to the memo. The engineer told the AOL executive, according to the memo, that if Netscape didn't go along, "Microsoft would crush them."
The evidence is significant because Microsoft has said that Netscape concocted its account of the meeting much later, after it began losing market share to Microsoft. Lawyers for Microsoft planned to introduce evidence of friendly e-mail messages and continued discussions between the two companies in the months after the meeting to show that Netscape wasn't acting as if it had been threatened.
The documents were cited in a list of trial exhibits filed with the U.S. District Court here last week.
A Microsoft spokesman said "the government allegations about the Netscape meeting are hogwash." William Neukom, general counsel for the Redmond, Wash., software company, has denounced the government's "trial by ambush" tactics. He also said the apparent broadening of the case in recent months denies due process to Microsoft because the company hasn't been given adequate time to defend itself.
Also retrieved from AOL's files are notes from a Jan. 18, 1996, meeting between Microsoft and AOL executives. According to the notes, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates tried to persuade AOL to align with his company and dump Netscape. At one point, according to the notes, "Gates delivered a characteristically blunt query: how much do we need to pay you to screw Netscape?" Later, the notes purport to quote Mr. Gates saying, "This is your lucky day."
A Microsoft spokesman said the document "appears to be a third-hand reflection of a meeting, with lots of editorial interpretation by the person who wrote it." He objected to the disclosure of "carefully selected snippets of information that only tell one side of the story -- fortunately, the court will hear all the facts, not just a handful."
Soon after the meeting AOL dropped Netscape and added Microsoft's Internet browser to its service. At the time, AOL said that Microsoft offered better technology that was more easily adapted to its needs. More recently, AOL has said that it also wanted a listing on Microsoft's next release of Windows, which gave millions of PC users single-click access to AOL's service.
The memo, dated Jan. 21, 1996, also suggests that Microsoft offered another incentive -- a "significant long-term commitment to buying advertising from AOL", described as being "on the order of tens of millions of dollars of advertising and promotion." However, the memo says Mr. Gates stopped short of agreeing to package AOL's software with Windows 95.
The memo was signed "DCC," identified in a court document as David Cole, an AOL executive; it was sent to AOL Chairman Steve Case and a dozen other senior managers. The memo concludes that Mr. Gates's basic message was "wake up and go where the power is."
Ironically, the new evidence surfaced as a result of a recent Microsoft subpoena, not because AOL volunteered it to the government, lawyers and executives said. Once the evidence was produced for Microsoft, the government had access to it. An AOL spokesman declined to comment Sunday. An AOL executive is expected to testify about the circumstances of the company's browser contract with Microsoft.
According to AOL's description of the Jan. 18 meeting between AOL and Microsoft, the software giant told AOL executives that Microsoft has "an amazing array of cool Internet-centric technology under development" and to "go with the team that not only has the better technology and products, but has the size and commitment to make them stick."
The notes from that meeting add that Microsoft's Netscape strategy is "to bundle increased functions in their existing product lines and turn the screws on their channels." This could support two key charges in the government's case: that Microsoft added Internet functions to Windows solely to hurt Netscape, which it saw as a threat to its Windows operating-system monopoly; and that Microsoft pressured distribution channels, such as computer manufacturers and online services, to drop Netscape.
The 1995 AOL memo about the Netscape meeting with Microsoft says that Microsoft asked its tiny rival to give it a board seat, disclose its plans and essentially promise not to compete in the operating-system arena. In return, the memo says "Netscape would get to be Microsoft's special partner." But the memo adds that if "Netscape didn't do the deal, Microsoft would crush them."
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