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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: t2 who wrote (24159)	6/15/1999 1:49:00 AM
From: Sir Francis Drake	Respond to of 74651

Less than stellar x-exam by MSFT lawyers - Jackson doesn't seem impressed... nytimes.com <<WASHINGTON -- The Microsoft Corporation put its most important rebuttal witness in the Government's antitrust trial on the stand Monday, a senior executive from America Online, and set out to prove that the online service had deceived the judge about its plans to compete with Microsoft. But the effort proved to be a bust in terms of how it played in court. By midafternoon, the halting, tedious examination of David M. Colburn, a senior vice president of America Online, had put several people in the courtroom to sleep. Finally Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson called Microsoft's lawyer, John Warden, up to the bench and told him he was not getting much if anything out of the questions or the documents Warden was offering as evidence. Judge Jackson urged Warden to hurry up and finish. For weeks, Microsoft's lawyers have been saying they would base a good part of their rebuttal case around their allegation that Colburn did not tell the complete truth when he testified as a Government witness in October. Specifically, they said, America Online's plan to purchase the Netscape Communications Corporation was well under way at the time of Colburn's earlier testimony, and planning documents showed that America Online intended to mount a strong challenge to Microsoft, though Colburn made no mention of that in his original testimony. The strategy apeared to be two-fold. Microsoft would challenge "the completeness and candor of prior testimony," the company said in a court filing -- raising credibility issues, just as the Government's lead trial lawyer, David Boies, had done with many of Microsoft's witnesses. The second part of the stategy would be to show that America Online, through its purchase of Netscape, intended to mount a strong competitive challenge to Microsoft, undercutting the Government's assertion that Microsoft holds an unassailable monopoly. But Colburn did not cooperate. Today Warden offered as evidence presumably the best selections from the trove of documents Microsoft subpoenaed from America Online, Netscape and Sun Microsystems, a partner in the deal. Colburn recognized few of them, however, and quarreled with Warden's interpretation of almost every one. Judge Jackson showed little interest. "I'll admit it," he said with a shake of the hand about one America Online document offered as evidence. "I don't know what's probative in it; I really don't. Without some testimony to give it substance, I don't know what it means." Earlier, Warden had displayed documents showing that America Online planned to work with Sun to build a personal computer that used no Microsoft software, thus "breaking the deadly embrace with Microsoft" in the words of a Sun executive. But Colburn said the plan went nowhere. It was, he said, intended to create lower-price personal computers, so more people could afford to join the service. But while the planning was under way, computer prices fell sharply, "so the talks are largely dead." The documents Warden presented did show that America Online executives, including the chief executive, Stephen M. Case, were concerned about Microsoft. In one, Case wrote, "Our relationship with Microsoft is strained and will get much worse no matter how we play it." He then wondered what would happen if his company stopped distributing Microsoft's Web browser to its 16 million subscribers and replaced it with Netscape's browser. But for all the discussion, Colburn and many of the documents said, America Online finally decided to keep the relationship with Microsoft just as it had been -- and to continue using Internet Explorer. The company renewed its contract with Microsoft in January. Outside the courtroom, a Microsoft lawyer gamely asserted that Colburn's statements would be useful in later written pleadings, Judge Jackson's lack of interest today notwithstanding. By shortly after noon today Judge Jackson's attention was clearly flagging as Warden began another series of questions without looking up at the judge. A lawyer at Microsoft's table quickly sent Warden a note, and as soon as Warden read it, he called for a lunch break. The judge readily agreed.>>