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From the preliminary evidence presented in the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust suit against Microsoft and Bill Gates (involving the company's attempts to buy off Netscape, its chief rival in the Internet browser field) [BUSINESS, Nov. 2], it would appear that Microsoft has taken a page out of the Mafia's playbook: You want to remain in business, you have to do it our way or no way. If it is true that Microsoft used these tactics, then it sure sounds similar to extortion. BRUCE L. RIVERS Tucson, Ariz...
...still under way, but service-and-content behemoth America Online looks set to snap up Netscape in a $4 billion all-stock deal Monday. Sun Microsystems, also involved in the talks, would take over Netscape's server-end software; AOL would run the popular Netcenter portal and keep the browser itself in safe hands. Right now, AOL has an exclusive contract with Microsoft to distribute Internet Explorer to its 14 million subscribers; that agreement may expire on January 1, 1999. A deal to divide Netscape with Sun would give AOL's Steve Case a chance...
...week earlier, America Online senior vice president David Colburn told his own tale of being bullied into dropping Netscape and adopting Microsoft's browser. AOL switched, Colburn said, because it was the only way Microsoft would agree to put the AOL icon on the Windows desktop--a key concession. Microsoft tried to get Colburn to say AOL had switched because Microsoft's browser was technically superior--and he had internal documents suggesting that some AOL employees thought so. But the gruffly sarcastic Colburn, who went to court in cowboy boots and several days' stubble, wouldn't budge...
Here's one memo you don't want to be caught red-handed 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...
...that was just one of a number of highly embarrassing verbal contortions played for the benefit of the federal courthouse Monday. Confronted with one of his own mails in which he describes enhanced "browser share" as Microsoft's "No. 1 mission," Gates shot back: "We didn't mean browser share, we meant browser usage." Bill Clinton would be proud. Clinton, of course, didn't have to face a single judge with arbitrary power. Thomas Penfield Jackson, the man who will determine Microsoft's fate, was spotted chuckling and shaking his head as Gates tied himself in knots trying...