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

To: Brian Malloy who wrote (6404)	5/1/1998 5:56:00 PM
From: Maverick	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Microsoft, Senate Judiciary Panel Square Off Yet Again By Stuart Glascock & Edward F. Moltzen Washington .............. With more than a dozen state attorneys general at its heels, Microsoft Corp. also is waging a donnybrook with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. The company so far has refused to let PC makers speak to committee investigators anonymously about their licensing deals with the software giant, said committee sources and Microsoft officials. The senators want to know if Microsoft gave sweetheart deals to hardware OEMs or coerced them into favoring its Internet browser over rival Netscape Communications Corp.'s Netscape Navigator. The agitation with the Judiciary panel, which took testimony from Microsoft Chief Executive Bill Gates in March, comes as several states' attorneys general stepped up their own probe last week into whether the unreleased Windows 98 will violate antitrust laws. But the fight with the Senate panel is becoming a thorny political battle that could affect hardware OEMs. "We asked for a letter saying it was OK for us to speak with their licensees without . . . having Microsoft know about it. A lot of these licensees are afraid of retaliation," said Jeanne Lopatto, a Judiciary Committee staffer. "We have yet to receive such a letter, or we have yet to get a letter [from Microsoft] that would identify specific conditions under which they would give us such a letter," she said. Microsoft executives said the company will oblige, as they did with a similar request from the Justice Department's Antitrust Division. In that instance, the Justice Department vowed complete confidentiality in a letter. "We are willing to talk to them, but we are not going to ease up on not letting this information be protected," said Jim Cullinan, a Microsoft public-affairs manager. "We are never going to change our position that we have to protect our confidential information and trade secrets."