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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (9880)	5/18/1998 7:42:00 PM
From: kech	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 64865

Check out what MSFT plans were for Sun's cross platform Java. News Alert from Reuters via Quote.com Topic: (NASDAQ:MSFT) Microsoft Corp, (NASDAQ:NSCP) Netscape Communications Corp, (NASDAQ:SUNW) Sun Microsystems, (NYSE:T) At&T Corp, (NYSE:GTW) Gateway 2000 Inc, Quote.com News Item #6511909 Headline: U.S. documents charges against Microsoft ====================================================================== WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department tried to bolster its case against Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) with numerous statements by company executives and officials from other high-tech companies. The government's lawsuit alleged Microsoft illicitly leveraged its dominant position in computer operating systems to popularize its Internet Explorer Web browser at the expense of Netscape Communications Corp.'s (NASDAQ:NSCP) Navigator browser. The 53-page complaint and 71-page supporting memo containing excerpts of e-mails, interviews and depositions indicate Microsoft viewed Netscape's browser as a serious threat to the continued success of its operating system. One executive declared, "Netscape pollution must be eradicated," adding "the situation is threatening our operating systems and desktop applications share at a fundamental level." Microsoft also sought to quash Sun Microsystem Inc.'s (NASDAQ:SUNW) "cross-platform" Java computer language used to write programs that run over the Internet on computers running not only Microsoft's Windows, but also many other operating systems. One memo said the company planned to "kill cross-platform Java," while another said "Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." Sun has filed its own private antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. In response to the perceived threats, the government charged, Microsoft began prohibiting computer makers from removing its Internet Explorer and began striking deals with online and Internet service providers to exclude Netscape. In a February 1997 message, one Microsoft official wrote, "It seems clear that it will be very hard to increase browser share on the merits of IE 4 (Internet Explorer) alone. It will be more important to leverage the OS (operating system) asset to make people use IE instead of Navigator." Discussing the possibility of separating the Windows 98 operating system, or OS, and Internet Explorer, a company memo noted that if the products "are decoupled, then Navigator will have a good chance of winning." Intuit Inc., maker of the popular Quicken financial software, later agreed to use Internet Explorer exclusively. In order to induce America Online Inc., the largest online service in the world, to use Microsoft's browser instead of Netscape's, Microsoft agreed to promote AOL in Windows at the expense of Microsoft's own online service, the Justice Department said. The move prompted Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates to say the agreement was effectively "putting a bullet through MSN's (the Microsoft Network's head." AOL agreed to the deal, as one company official said, because Microsoft's "distribution involved essentially every PC on the marketplace" and "because that was the price of admission for getting the deal done." In negotiations with AT&T Corp.(NYSE:T), a Microsoft official offered to feature the long-distance telephone company's Internet service prominently in Windows if the service promoted Internet Explorer. "There are very, very few people we allow to be in the Windows box," the Microsoft official said. "If you want that preferential treatment from us, which is extraordinary treatment, we're going to want something very extraordinary from you." Computer makers told the Justice Department they had no choice but to purchase Microsoft's Windows operating system for machines they sold. "We don't have a choice," an executive of Gateway 2000 Inc. (NYSE:GTW) told the government. Gateway and other manufacturers told the government that at various times they had asked Microsoft if they could remove all or part of Internet Explorer, but the company forbade such changes. The government also attacked Microsoft's special deals with Internet and online service providers to gain market share for Internet Explorer.