Microsoft witness attacked for contradictory opinions; economist is said to have shifted stance
Article Abstract:
Justice Department lawyer David Boies confronted Richard L. Schmalensee, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist, with papers he had written contradicting opinions he has offered in his testimony defending Microsoft Corp. against the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit. The attorney also attacked a survey, referred to by Mr. Schmalensee, as cooked up by Microsoft to justify inclusion of its web browser in its Windows operating system for reasons apart from competitive advantage, citing email last February from Chairman Bill Gates to employees requesting such a document be available before his testimony before a Senate hearing on March 3rd. He countered Schmalensee's assertion that the Linux operating system poses competition by quoting an interview with Gates published in PC Week On Line in June in which he stated that it posed no threat whatever, saying, "I've never had a customer menton Linux to me." Boies went after Schmalensee's argument that Microsoft faces serious competition against its computer operating systems using criteria for determining whether such competieon exists that Schmalensee developed himself in articles published in the Antitrust Law Journal in 1997. The economist was forced to concede that no serious competitors existed. He asserted that Microsoft behaved as if it did face competitive threats, spending money on development to counter them and that this still satisfied some of his criteria for a competitive environment.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1999
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Depositions continue in Microsoft case; odd turn of events for America Online
Article Abstract:
Microsoft Corp. deposed America Online chairman Stephen M. Case for the rebuttal phase of the Justice Department's antitrust case against the software company. Microsoft lawyer, John Warden's questions seemed to elude to the possible competition of America Online to Microsoft, which Case denied and government lawyers found irrelevant. Microsoft maintains that America Online's purchase of Netscape Communications show's a strong competitive market in the compute industry.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1999
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
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