Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Guidance and Visibility -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeff Jordan who wrote (47945)	4/10/2002 11:47:10 AM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 208838

DJ Microsoft Judge Hands States Setback In Antitrust Case By Mark Wigfield Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The judge in charge of the Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) antitrust remedy trial rejected a request by the nine state attorneys general to introduce additional damaging testimony as they were preparing to rest their case. However, she will allow the states to attempt to introduce the information during cross-examination of 13 of 18 witnesses, all Microsoft executives, when they appear in court in the company's defense. She may allow videotapes of the deposition testimony of the officials, including Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Microsoft can object to any cross-examination not based on the witnesses' direct testimony. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she'll rule on these objections on a case-by-case basis. The judge once again seemed annoyed by what she considered a last-minute request by the states. Before the trial began four weeks ago, she chided the states for making last minute changes in their remedy proposal, which forced her to delay the trial by one week. The states should have included the witnesses on their original list, which would have enabled Microsoft to better prepare its defense, she told Steven Kuney, an attorney for the states. "You create an issue of prejudice" for Microsoft "when you bring it up in the last week of a four-week presentation," she said. Kuney said depositions of the Microsoft executives were still going on after a March 4 deadline for the witness list. Kuney also said the states misconstrued deadlines set by the judge. The states simply wanted to put in the record "statements by Microsoft managerial officials who we thought would be useful to the court," Kuney said. The judge also ruled that Microsoft can play portions of a videotaped deposition of Thomas Greene, assistant attorney general for California, which is one of the nine states suing Microsoft. The nine states rejected a November settlement reached by the Justice Department and nine other states of the 1998 case. The judge is weighing their independent remedy proposals, which include a demand that Microsoft be required to sell stripped-down versions of Windows and give away the computer code of its Internet Explorer browser. The states are expected to rest their case Thursday. (MORE) DOW JONES NEWS 04-10-02