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To: XiaoYao who wrote (21426)	11/13/1998 12:14:00 AM
From: XiaoYao	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24154

Microsoft Lawyer Brands Intel Executive A Liar Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Special to Newsbytes 11/12/98 Newsbytes News Network (c) Copyright 1998 Post-Newsweek Business Information, Inc. All rights reserved. WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1998 NOV 12 (NB). A Microsoft Corp. [NASDAQ:MSFT] lawyer repeatedly questioned the credibility of an Intel Corp. [NASDAQ:INTC] executive during a tense cross-examination at the Microsoft antitrust trial this morning, accusing him of concocting some of his most colorful testimony and of harboring a grudge against the software giant. Steven McGeady, an Intel vice president, had testified earlier this week that Microsoft had threatened to withhold crucial technical support from Intel if the chipmaker did not stop developing software that would compete with Microsoft's products. McGeady, called to testify by the government, also said that an executive at Microsoft told him of plans to "extinguish" one of the company's fiercest rivals, Netscape Communications Corp. [NASDAQ:NSCP]. This morning, Microsoft lawyer Steven Holley showed McGeady a copy of his handwritten notes from the meeting in which he contends that Microsoft executive Paul Maritz made the statement. "This is not what your notes say," Holley told McGeady. "You don't see the word extinguish anywhere in your notes, do you?" "There is no danger I would have forgotten," retorted McGeady, who said he didn't need to write down the remark because it was sure to stick in his mind. "You didn't add them to your notes because you made them up later," Holley shot back. "This is absolutely untrue and I resent the implication," McGeady responded. The Justice Department and 20 states allege that Microsoft has used illegal tactics against its competitors in the computer software industry, as well as other high-tech fields. McGeady was called to testify in an effort to show that the company even bullied Intel, normally a close collaborator. Microsoft denies any wrongdoing, saying that its business practices merely represent the intense competitive spirit of the computer industry. Throughout the morning, Holley kept brandishing handwritten notes, electronic mail messages and deposition statements by other Intel executives that were intended to question McGeady's veracity and depict him as a disaffected technologist with an axe to grind against Microsoft. A defensive McGeady did not concede to Holley's arguments, instead offering tart rebuttals and protestations that the lawyer was misinterpreting the documents. Most of the alleged threats described by McGeady occurred in 1995, when he directed a large multimedia software group at the Intel Architecture Labs. Later that year, McGeady took a leave of absence to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Holley suggested this morning that McGeady's sabbatical was a result of his attitude toward Microsoft and "irresolvable disagreements" with his superiors. The lawyer introduced a copy of McGeady's notes of a meeting he had with a senior Intel executive, Frank Gill, in which he wrote that Gill complained about his group's "belligerence toward Microsoft" and said that McGeady was a "prima donna." "You believed you had been axed by Mr. Gates and Mr. Maritz, didn't you," Holley said to McGeady, referring to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. McGeady said one of the reasons for his sabbatical was that Microsoft had requested that he not be part of certain technical programs between the companies, making it difficult for him to continue. "It is incumbent for us at Intel to work with Microsoft," he said. Holley also accused McGeady of equating Microsoft with the devil, because he titled one memo about a meeting with Microsoft executives "Sympathy for the Devil." McGeady, however, maintained that the he was simply referring to a Rolling Stones song because Microsoft had been using another Stones tune, "Start Me Up," to promote its Windows 95 operating system. Holley also accused McGeady of "having no idea of what really went on" in a 1995 meeting between Gates and Intel leader Andrew S. Grove. In his deposition, according to Holley, McGeady said the two executives got into a loud fight. The Microsoft lawyer also argued that the witness made up his statement that he attributed to Maritz in an August 1995 meeting that the software giant would "cut off (Netscape Communications Corp.'s) air supply." When McGeady admitted that he hadn't written down the alleged remark, Holley suggested that the witness was simply reciting a line made popular by Lawrence Ellison, the chief executive of Oracle Corp. [NASDAQ:ORCL], another Microsoft rival. "I did not," McGeady maintained. "I haven't learned much from Larry." Is this the original resource of infamous "cut off air supply"?