Justice Accuses Microsoft, Intuit of Bad Faith

The Justice Department on Friday accused attorneys for Microsoft Corp. and Intuit Inc. of acting in bad faith and asked a federal judge to extend a trial deadline as a result.

The request concerns the government’s lawsuit last month to block Microsoft’s $2-billion purchase of Intuit, maker of the popular Quicken personal finance program. The deal would mean the biggest software merger ever.

Both sides initially agreed to a speedy trial schedule to resolve the dispute quickly before a federal judge in San Francisco, where the government’s case was filed.

In the motion Friday, Justice Department attorney Michael F. Bailey complained that defense attorneys would not agree to what he called routine stipulations that would resolve basic legal issues and keep the trial on the expedited schedule. Stipulations are agreements on certain issues and facts that form the foundation of a legal case.

The government said the defendants refused to stipulate, among other things, “unequivocal statements made by company officials in company documents” or “the percentage of homes with IBM-compatible PCs.”

“As a result, we genuinely believe that the highly accelerated scheduled we are on and trial limitations we are under are no longer realistic,” Bailey wrote.

He requested a two- to three-week delay in the trial, initially scheduled for June 26. A Microsoft spokesman said the company was still looking at the brief late Friday and had no comment.