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

To: The Phoenix who wrote (24401)	6/18/1999 5:27:00 PM
From: William Hunt	Respond to of 74651

Thread---Microsoft Corp. Dow Jones Newswires -- June 18, 1999 DJ Microsoft Trial Testimony Ends Next Week;Talks May Start By Mark Boslet WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Arguments in the rebuttal phase of the Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) antitrust trial will conclude next week with the testimony of Microsoft's final witness, the economist Richard Schmalensee. That should open the door to new settlement discussions, though the two sides remain far apart, and lead to Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's first ruling in the case, expected as early as mid-September. Microsoft will bring Schmalensee, dean of the Sloan School at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to the stand on Monday to argue the company hasn't acted in a predatory way and doesn't have monopoly power. Schmalensee made similar claims during a January appearance at the trial, where he tried to counter claims from the Justice Department and 19 states that Microsoft used its Windows monopoly to crush browser rival Netscape Communications Corp. With the conclusion of four weeks of rebuttal arguments on Thursday or next Friday, Microsoft and government lawyers will turn their attention to preparing lengthy "findings of fact" briefings. The briefings, of several hundred pages, will be submitted to the court at the end of July, and several days of hearings may follow. Attorneys said that should leave Jackson in the position to rule in the case by the middle of September or early October. Jackson has said he will first write a "findings of fact," with conclusions on whether Microsoft has a monopoly, or whether its browser distribution contracts were restrictive. A "findings of law" will follow, perhaps by Thanksgiving. Attorneys for both sides met once in late March, with the then 4 1/2-month trial in recess, for their only settlement discussion. The two-hour meeting adjourned after little progress, and contact between negotiating teams since has been minimal, with only a few documents exchanged. Government and Microsoft attorneys say it is "not unlikely" they will try to narrow their substantial differences once rebuttal arguments conclude. Microsoft officials claim Schmalensee will "connect the dots" in the antitrust defense they have laid out in federal district court here. He will argue Microsoft's efforts to distribute its Explorer browser and integrate it into Windows were legitimate - and not predatory - responses to competition. The government claims the restrictive distribution contracts and integration with Windows represent anticompetitive and tying violations of antitrust law. Schmalensee also is expected to argue that threats to the market position of Microsoft's Windows come from outside the world of operating systems designed to run on computers using Intel Corp. (INTC)-compatible chips. These threats, he will claim, undermine the government conclusion Microsoft has monopoly power. BEST WISHES