In new antitrust case, all eyes will be on Bill Gates

Bill Gates testifying during his deposition on August 27, 1998 / Wikipedia

The old adage about experience being a teacher is about to get put to the test. Some 13 years ago, a feisty, oftentimes condescending Bill Gates became the public face of a beleaguered Microsoft accused of breaking antitrust law.

Now an older - and presumably wiser - Gates will soon head to the witness stand in a new antitrust case where he be expected to put on a better show when he takes the oath to testify.

The dispute centers around Novell's claim that it was the target of anticompetitive practices by Microsoft. Jury selection began on Monday in Salt Lake City, where the trial will be held. Gates is scheduled as one of the people who will testify.

These two companies shared a furious rivalry in early 1990s when Novell, the one-time leader in the network operating system world, fell behind a hard-charging Microsoft. Novell, which also owned WordPerfect, similarly lost its lead in the software office applications business to Microsoft.

The opposing lawyers will battle mightily over whether this was the result of fair competition or Microsoft again stepping over the line. No doubt Novell will point to the questionable business tactics that got publicized during the famous antitrust lawsuit brought in 1998 when the Justice Department and the attorneys general of twenty U.S. states accused Microsoft of breaking the law

Microsoft, which denied all the allegations, found itself on the PR defensive once the trial began. The prosecution played a series of explosive videotaped exchanges between Gates and the DOJ's lead attorney David Boies where Microsoft's one-time CEO did neither himself nor his company any favors.

During the interviews, Gates repeatedly came off as peevish and seemingly bent on being obfuscatory. At the time, BusinessWeek wrote that Gates so often responded to questions from Boies with an "I don't recall'" that even the presiding judge, Thomas Penfield Jackson, began to laugh.

Microsoft was ultimately found to have acted like a predatory monopolist. Even though an appellate court overturned many of the judge's harshest proposed remedies - which included breaking up the company into separate units - Microsoft has never again asserted the sort of dominance it once enjoyed as faster-moving Internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter were faster to exploit the changes affecting the technology world.

A 1994 Microsoft email that Novell has singled out as helping its case quotes Gates telling company developers to "wait until we have a way to do a high level of integration that will be harder for [the] likes of Notes, WordPerfect to achieve, and which will give Office a real advantage," adding that "it did not come up in any competitive sense."

In a subsequent deposition, Gates said the issue was not about shutting out competitors but about fostering innovation. "he decision I was making in this memo is about: Is this an important thing? And I'm saying it's not," Gates said.

Microsoft responded by accusing Novell of looking for a scapegoat. "The law basically doesn't require people to design their products to the whim or demand of other companies. You get to design your own products," Microsoft attorney Steve Aeschbacher told the Deseret News. "There isn't any legal obligation for us to do what they wanted us to do." A lot is riding on the outcome: Novell is demanding up to $1.2 billion in damages. Attachmate Group bought Novell in April for $2.2 billion.

[gruven13777]

Depositions are stupid. They are basically just fishing expeditions, while at the same time they're used to try and make you screw up and contradict yourself so later they can malign your character in front of the court.

[syrik]

Capitalism is competition. Competition is one side winning over another side. The natural conclusion of this interaction is a monopoly of one or two victors. This is capitalism, so what's the problem?

It's the same thing that has happened in every other industry, just Microsoft took their industry over more completely. How many big oil companies are there now? Four, Five? How many major banks? How many drug companies or credit companies? Phone companies? How many of each in 10 years? Get used to monopolies if capitalism continues to spread as it is now. This is exactly what the lobbies in Washington and your current government is supporting. Not small business. Not entrepreneurship. Monopolies.

[endrepubs]

The thing I don't like about Gates is he created nothing. All of Microsoft's operating system was bought from IBM and Xerox. Gates bought the rights and ran with it. He was a good opportunist but not a creative genius. He did seize an opportunity but only becasue IBM and Xerox were stupid and sold him the rights.

[baileyccc]

The government has no problem with collusion within Big Pharma, but a hard working tech company with hundreds of billions stockpile is a good target to show the government is doing it's job. If Gates would have filled the pockets of Congress like Big Pharma, this would not be happening.

[jackobyte]

You said it "hundreds of billions".
How did they get that? squarely and fairly? methinks not.
It would be thousands of trillions if people didn't pirate stuff, then old Gatesey boy would have eliminated malaria and cured cancer, what?

[tsigili]

The government does little to reign in monopolies, until they are so far out of control that any idiot, can see they are a monopoly.

Microsoft is an example of a company that gets away with far too much.

[phydeux2]

Exactly what makes them a monopoly? You can use WordPerfect, OpenOffice, Google Docs, and a hundred other equivalent programs on Windows. If it were truly a monopoly they wouldn't allow you to run anything BUT Microsoft Office. And we wouldn't have Firefox or WinAmp either.

[endrepubs]

phyduex2,
Windows operating system is most certainly a monopoly.

[phydeux2]

If what Microsoft did was illegal, then why is it legal for Ford and Chevy to design their engine mounts so you can only their engine in your car? Wouldn't this make all automakers "predatory monopolists" Besides, Novell could have also developed for Unix or Apple, but they chose not to. Whose fault is that?

[smittyc]

Oh well these things happen, what can you do?

[Jaylah54]

As if $1.2 billion would even be noticed or missed by M$.

[p_syrus]

M$ is a predatory monopolist. In the u.s. that constitutes criminal conduct. Bill Gates is the man who determined that M$ should pursue a criminal business plan. He is as much of a 'philanthropist' as was the infamous Al Capone.

Bust up M$ once & for all. It should have been done decades ago.

[skeezix06]

In all seriousness, Gates is not a good person. He has and still is walking all over people.

[DenverBroncofan]

I don't agree with walking over people, but Gates is fairly generous with his money. Many charities will attest. Some I am sure are done for tax reasons, but many are for the right reason

[phydeux2]

Steve Jobs was just as bad, and yet everyone sings HIS praises. Yet when Jobs came back to Apple, he ordered all corporate philanthropic programs shut down. Meanwhile, Gates starts an $8.5B foundation.