Intel Exec: Gates Said Practices Unchanged

One year after Microsoft Corp. agreed with the U.S. government to end specific anti-competitive practices, Chairman Bill Gates said his company had not needed to make any changes, an Intel executive testified at the software giant’s antitrust trial in Washington. The testimony, by Intel Vice President Steven McGeady, matched statements from Gates and other Microsoft executives shortly after the agreement was approved in 1995 that the imposed changes would have little impact. Microsoft had already stopped using the prohibited practices, Gates had said. “This antitrust thing will blow over,” he said in a July 1995 meeting, according to notes taken by McGeady. “We haven’t changed our business practices at all.” Microsoft signed a consent decree with the Justice Department in 1994 aimed at increasing competition. It was approved in 1995. But the department and 20 states followed up in May with broader antitrust charges against Microsoft, which are the subject of the trial.