This may explain some of the short interest.
Microsoft Tentacles Reaching Out Again
Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, March 5, 1999
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Microsoft Corp. yesterday unveiled a wide-ranging plan that could make it even more omnipresent in the business world, even as a prominent trade group suggested the government should look at breaking up the software giant.
Chief executive Bill Gates told a group of about 200 analysts and reporters in San Francisco that Microsoft's new electronic commerce strategy would provide products and services touching every aspect of doing business on the Internet. The plan includes helping companies set up Internet retail sites, setting common standards for electronic transactions, and tracking sales patterns and consumer habits.
Microsoft's e-commerce plan revolves around a new product named BizTalk, which is both a common computer language and a related Internet server program that would allow companies using different software to perform transactions more seamlessly.
<<This really sound like Transact to me!>>
Gates said he hopes to help 1 million businesses set up storefronts on the Web in the next several years.
''We think the Internet will become the marketplace for most businesses,'' Gates said. ''BizTalk is the glue that ties all that together.'' <<or Commercetone?>>
Analysts said that although Microsoft so far has lagged in the growing electronic commerce field, the company is now launching a full- court press against rivals like database software-maker Oracle Corp. and the Internet alliance of America Online and Netscape Communications Corp.
In the process, Microsoft hopes to extend the reach of its already dominant Windows programs and Internet server software, which would be tailored to use BizTalk.
Microsoft is also working on a new BizTalk Server, a program for corporate Internet servers, due out in a test version in July.
<<I am not holding my breath for July delivery. Oh, I wonder if they are going to deliver a UNIX version? NOT>>
Microsoft also plans to set up a one-stop marketplace on the Web, called Open Marketplace, with a service called Microsoft Passport to provide consumers with a universal way to shop and buy.
<<Not very original are they?>>
''I was surprised by the extent of their articulated land grab,'' said analyst Bill Burnham of Credit Suisse First Boston.
<<Note articulated, not executed land grab!>>
Tim Bajarin, president of the San Jose research firm Creative Strategies Inc., said Microsoft's Open Marketplace could become the online Wal-Mart.
''This makes Microsoft a threat to Amazon.com right off the bat,'' Bajarin said.
<<I wonder if AMZN is going to sit still? :)>>
Also yesterday, Microsoft said it purchased CompareNet, a privately held San Francisco company that provides an Internet comparison shopping service, for an undisclosed purchase price. CompareNet will soon be incorporated into Microsoft's MSN Sidewalk online guide.
Microsoft is teaming with PeopleSoft of Pleasanton to develop Internet tools for businesses, and announced an alliance with MasterCard International and Clarus Corp. to market an ''integrated'' method for companies to purchase goods and services from one another over the Internet.
Microsoft made the announcements just as reports surfaced 3,000 miles away that the biggest software trade association had suggested the government should consider breaking up Microsoft if the company loses its landmark antitrust case with the U.S. Justice Department and 19 states.
The 1,400-member Washington- based Software and Information Industry Association made its recommendations in a secret report sent to Justice Department lawyers. The report proposed splitting Microsoft into three so-called ''Baby Bills'' that would focus on separate markets: the Windows operating system, software applications, and Internet content and tools.
Microsoft is one of the biggest companies in the trade group, which is partially a successor to the Software Publishers Association. The group's board -- which issued the report over Microsoft's strong objection -- includes executives from Netscape, Oracle and IBM Corp.
In response to a question at the e-commerce press conference, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Bob Herbold downplayed the report's significance. He said the leak of the breakup proposal ''was unfortunate'' and that the opinion was ''counter to the membership of that organization.''
Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said discussion of remedies the government may seek was ''premature'' since the antitrust trial has not concluded. He called the breakup proposal ''little more than wishful thinking'' by Microsoft's competitors.
The antitrust case has been unfolding in a federal courtroom in Washington since October. Microsoft completed its defense last week and the trial is on a six-week hiatus before the next phase, when each side will call rebuttal witnesses. During the break, Microsoft is scheduling meetings at a handful of newspapers around the country to respond to stories that the company bungled its defense in the case.
Chronicle wire services contributed
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