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To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (21412)	11/12/1998 11:25:00 AM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24154

Analysis: Government witnesses paint similar story of Microsoft dealings zdnet.com The story known as standard Microsoft business practice, much loved by friends of Bill here, except in this particular context. The good gray Times is quiet today, except for Bill's confusing the consent decree matter and the current suit, as usual, so I had to hop over to ZDNN for a news fix. The government has controlled proceedings during the first 13 days of testimony, calling a diverse group of witnesses that has included executives from Netscape Communications Corp., America Online Inc., Apple Computer Inc. and Intel Corp. And those witnesses have had a surprisingly similar story to tell: That Microsoft Corp. tried to bully them into dropping products or cutting off contracts with its rivals. Granted, we're still hearing the government's side of the case. Microsoft will roll out its own -- equally one-sided -- testimony to rebut the charges, after the government puts its 12 witnesses through the Microsoft-bashing drill. But the testimony against the Redmond, Wash., giant has been damaging -- whether it was presented by such wounded rivals as Netscape and AOL or a seemingly rock-solid ally such as Intel. Funny thing about the upcoming Microsoft defense, all those witnesses will have to face legal pit bull Boies, and won't have the benefit of direct testimony for the press. Wonder if the roster of Microsoft "relatively junior executives", to use Bill's words, will bear up as well as gentleman Jim Barksdale in the face of hostile cross examination? At any rate, I will enjoy seeing what Paul Maritz has to say about the famous "air supply" operation. Intel testimony the most damaging The most detrimental testimony for Microsoft so far has been that of Intel executive Steve McGeady. He's claimed that Microsoft has pressured even the mighty Intel -- its closest partner in the industry -- into axing several technologies. To repeat as usual, Microsoft must be free to innovate, and to tell everyone else, from Intel on down, just exactly what innovation is allowable and compatible with Bill's plans for world domination. McGeady dropped several bombshells during this week's testimony, including accusations that: Microsoft threatened to withhold support for Intel's upcoming processors unless the company killed a multimedia project known as Native Signal Processing, or NSP; Microsoft urged Intel to help it thwart Sun Microsystems Inc.'s version of Java; and Microsoft tried to co-opt Internet technologies by trying to kill HTML. For its part, Microsoft claimed Intel's project died on its own, getting McGeady to admit his company made a mistake when it didn't develop NSP for the latest version of Windows. But the testimony indicated a behind-the-scenes power struggle between the two companies that make up the so-called Wintel alliance. Internal Intel documents from 1995 referring to the relationship contain phrases such as "Cooperation -- NOT!" and "Divorce will be bad for the kids." Cheers, Dan.