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To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (21109)	10/19/1998 9:17:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Respond to of 24154

As Trial Opens, U.S. Questions What Gates Knew nytimes.com And when he knew it, as they used to say. Gates, in a sworn deposition in August, denied knowing that executives of his company had tried to make an illegal deal with rival Netscape Communications Corp. in 1995. "My only knowledge of that is that there was an article in The Wall Street Journal very recently that said something along those lines -- otherwise no," Gates said in a clip of the videotaped deposition shown to the packed courtroom. But a government lawyer, David Boies, produced a Microsoft internal memorandum from Gates, in which he wrote May 31 before that meeting: "I think there is a very powerful deal of some kind we can do with Netscape. I would really like to see something like this happen." That one's a little ambiguous. But then there's this: The Justice Department says that Microsoft essentially offered Netscape a deal, in an illegal effort to divide the market for the browser software that allows computer users to access the Internet. Microsoft agreed not to develop a rival browser for operating systems aside from Windows, if Netscape agreed to stay out of the Windows market. Netscape refused, and its co-founder, Marc Andreessen, afterward compared the meeting to "a visit by Don Corleone; I expected to find a bloody computer monitor in my bed the next day." Boies showed another video clip from Gates's deposition, taken last summer, in which Gates denied he ever seriously considered investing in Netscape. Gates said, "somebody [at Microsoft] asked if it made sense investing in Netscape,"' and he disagreed. Then Boies introduced a memorandum from Gates, before the June 1995 meeting, in which Gates wrote: "We could even give them money as part of the deal, buy a piece of them or something." Or something. Bill's said some strange things in his time, how could anyone expect him to keep it all straight? Cheers, Dan.

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (21109)	10/19/1998 9:26:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 24154

DOJ assault opens Microsoft trial news.com "Mr. Gates is again trying to distance himself" from behavior that for more than a year was under the microscope of antitrust investigators, Boies told U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who is overseeing the case. "What [the evidence] demonstrates is that, even down to the details, the top management was directly involved." One of the most explosive allegations Boies introduced is that Gates asked America Online executives to knock Microsoft rival Netscape Communication out of the browser market. "How much do we need to pay you to screw Netscape?" Gates reportedly asked AOL, according to an internal AOL document detailing a 1996 meeting. The document, which was blown up on large monitors placed in the packed courtroom, went on to claim that Gates told AOL executives: "This is your lucky day." As opposed to the day a few years earlier when Bill made an "embrace or demolish" offer to buy AOL, for $50million. It was touch and go for Steve Chase on that one, the vulture capitalists wanted to cash in. But in the browser wars, IE was an offer he couldn't refuse. It was better than free, Bill put a bullet through MSN's head to close the deal. But the Wall Street Journal reported today that America Online had provided evidence to the government that supports Netscape's version of what happened at a June 21, 1995, meeting between Netscape and Microsoft that is expected to be a major feature of the case. How ungrateful of them. Cheers, Dan.