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Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (19542)	5/20/1998 4:03:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

What Frank S. and Bill G. have in common www5.zdnet.com Somewhat sympathetic (to Bill, in case you were confused) column by Charles Cooper, but some things I've beaten to death, too. But the public relations battle is over. Now it's the lawyers' turn. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the company hasn't done itself any favors. Justice investigators, who only needed to read the local newspaper to pluck out incriminating quotations, were able to easily paint the Redmondians as a 1990s version of Murder Incorporated. Consider, for example: Paul Maritz, the company's group VP in charge of the Platforms Group: "We are going to cut off [Netscape's] air supply. Everything they're selling, we're going to give away for free." CEO Bill Gates: "Our business model works even if all Internet software is free ...We are still selling operating systems. What does Netscape's business model look like? Not very good." Senior VP James Allchin: "I am convinced we have to use Windows -- this is the one thing they don't have." And then there's the other juicy stuff, the allegations that Microsoft made acceptance of Internet Explorer a condition of sale for obtaining licenses, and the exclusionary contracts it supposedly signed with Internet providers designed to freeze out Netscape. . . . But even in the absence of a smoking gun, the government has passed the Rubicon. Microsoft's amazing PR gaffes along the way haven't helped matters, and the upshot is that the Justice Department is out for blood. Bill Gates never met Frank Sinatra, but taking a cue from the late, great crooner, he remains more determined than ever to have it his way. And unfortunately for Microsoft's combative CEO, so do the trustbusters at the United States Department of Justice. Standard Microsoft business practice vs. the long arm of the law. Who'll come out on top? Are we a government of laws, or a government of men? Or is that last one irrelevant, is Bill truly beyond mere mortals? Stay tuned. Cheers, Dan.