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

To: John F. Dowd who wrote (7550)	5/18/1998 9:04:00 PM
From: Scotsman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

There is a post on the Sun Micro thread that discusses some of the memo's the DOJ has gotten from MSFT. One of them says that MSFT needs to "steal Java." Not real good language for an innocent company. Anyway, take a look.

To: John F. Dowd who wrote (7550)	5/18/1998 11:52:00 PM
From: KonKilo	Respond to of 74651

Funny, I've used Macs since '86 and have never received that memo from Jobs... My new OS 8.1 DID have an option to reformat the drive, but with the click of a button, I opted not to employ it...

To: John F. Dowd who wrote (7550)	5/19/1998 9:30:00 AM
From: Dermot Burke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

If they lose the monopoly will they be able to afford those legal bills? zdnet.com

To: John F. Dowd who wrote (7550)	5/19/1998 12:02:00 PM
From: John F. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

To All: So what's new- what is different here than in the Windows 95 case? Reads like the Enquirer. Who is their lead litigator Jesse Berst or Matt Drudge? No wonder MSFT wants to go to court. This is very bullish! WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Justice Department tried to bolster its case against Microsoft Corp. 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 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 ''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., 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. 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.