Microsoft to make its case
C|Net | at | by Mike
The showdown between nine litigating states and Microsoft moves into its second--and potentially most tumultuous--phase Monday, as the plaintiff states close their case and the software giant presents its first witnesses. How tumultuous things get may depend on which Microsoft witnesses will take the stand, say legal experts. Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer are both on the list, but the software giant is still deciding which witnesses it will ultimately call, said sources familiar with Microsoft's legal strategy. Neither executive testified in court during the trial's main phase, which concluded in September 1999.
Throughout its upcoming defense, as it did during the cross-examination of some witnesses for the states, Microsoft plans to show that the states' remedy is nothing more than a hodgepodge of sanctions endorsed by competitors, sources said. During the states' phase of the proceeding, Microsoft introduced evidence indicating that AOL Time Warner, Novell and Sun Microsystems helped craft the states' remedy.
"It really was a crazy quilt of the best things competitors could think of that they could do to tie Microsoft's hands, to hobble us so we can't compete," said Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler. "Coming up with that fantasy list and sticking it all together into what the states call a remedy, the states are risking untold harm to the PC ecosystem and the economy."