Microsoft Foes Join Forces to Push for Antitrust Case
Several companies and trade associations critical of Microsoft Corp.’s business practices said Monday that they have banded together to mount an aggressive lobbying campaign against the software giant. The group will encourage federal and state regulators to pursue a broader antitrust case against Microsoft.
Announcing the group’s formation were two Washington figures better known for criticizing antitrust regulation: former Senate majority leader Bob Dole and former federal appellate Judge Robert Bork.
Dole, a former Republican presidential candidate who is now a lawyer, has been hired as a strategic advisor to the group, called the Project to Promote Competition and Innovation in the Digital Age, or “ProComp.” Bork has been retained by one of ProComp’s members, Netscape Communications Corp., to present legal arguments to the Justice Department.
With the filing of an antitrust case at stake, each side has been seeking out well-known Washington lobbyists to present their arguments to regulators and legislators.
The announcement comes as Microsoft and the Justice Department are set to face off today before the U.S. Court of Appeals. Company officials said Microsoft will argue that a federal judge overstepped his authority in December when he issued a temporary injunction against the company. That order required that Microsoft offer computer makers a version of its current PC operating system software, Windows 95, without its Internet Explorer 4.0 browsing software.
Meanwhile Monday, Microsoft was faced with less worrisome woes. A demonstration of Windows 98 crashed as Microsoft chief Bill Gates provided a glimpse of its features at the Comdex computer industry trade show in Chicago.
The Windows 98 software, scheduled to be released in June and retailing for about $89, collapsed when a Microsoft employee attempted to plug in a scanner, with his boss standing alongside. Gates was forced to move to another computer to complete his demonstration.
“I guess we still have some bugs to work out,” Gates said ruefully. “That must be why we’re not shipping Windows 98 yet.”
To fight its rivals’ campaign against it, Microsoft has hired lobbyist Grover Norquist, who runs a group called Americans for Tax Reform; Vin Weber, a director of the conservative think tank Empower America; and former Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.), a close ally of the Clinton administration.
The ProComp group includes several firms that have long been critical of Microsoft, such as Oracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc.
