Word: antitrust
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When the Justice Department served Bill Gates with an antitrust complaint that could, in theory, lead to Microsoft's breakup, he didn't bother reading it. At a key point in his war against archrival Sun Microsystems, Gates fired off an e-mail about Microsoft's plans to use Apple Computer to "undermine Sun," but now he can't remember sending the message and has no idea what he could have meant by it. And although Microsoft had two high-level negotiations in June 1995 with Netscape--the company that seemed to pose the greatest threat to Microsoft's dominance...
These were some of the astonishing insights into Gates' management style that the software magnate revealed in federal court last week. Justice Department lawyer David Boies kicked off Week 3 of the decade's most watched antitrust suit by showing two hours of Gates' videotaped deposition. The excerpts, culled from about 20 hours taken last August, made Gates look like he was about the worst CEO in America...
...Penfield Jackson chuckled over a particularly blatant Gates evasion.) And there is no question that tearing down the defendant company's CEO is shrewd trial strategy. "It's damaging from a legal point of view when you have a judge hear a boss get up and lie," notes D.C. antitrust lawyer Donald Falk. "It may lead the judge to disbelieve the company's other rationalizations...
Justice still has a tough road ahead. Antitrust law isn't particularly pro-government these days, and Microsoft hasn't even begun putting on its witnesses. But a common theme of ruthless--and perhaps illegally anticompetitive--behavior is emerging. The evidence Boies is assembling, brick by brick, suggests that the man on the videotape is at the center...
...with, especially if your name is Bill Gates: "We need to continue our jihad next year." The author was Microsoft executive Brad Chase, the year was 1996, and the subject was the battle for the Internet browser market with rival Netscape. Given that Microsoft is now accused of throwing antitrust law to the wind in the single-minded pursuit of controlling that market, such language doesn't look too good. So, Mr. Gates, what exactly did Mr. Chase mean by jihad? "I think," the software boss told government lawyers in his videotaped testimony, "he is referring to our vigorous efforts...