Microsoft Attacks Credibility of Intel Exec

WASHINGTON — In a scorching cross-examination of government witness Steven D. McGeady, Microsoft Corp. lawyers on Thursday cast the Intel Corp. executive as a disgruntled prima donna who secretly sought to help Microsoft’s rivals.

Ending what many lawyers viewed as four weeks of confusing courtroom strategy by the software giant, Microsoft trial lawyer Steve Holley went all out to attack McGeady’s credibility and discredit his allegations that Microsoft successfully pressured Intel three years ago to abandon work on rival software technology.

Holley bore down on McGeady so intensely during his questioning Thursday that U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson interrupted the lawyer to ask if he was trying to embarrass the witness.

Holley portrayed McGeady as a lone wolf who leaked confidential company memos to the media and tried to help Microsoft archrival Netscape Communications Corp.

He introduced an e-mail message McGeady sent Netscape founder James Clark in which McGeady offered to share with Netscape information he had gleaned about the software giant. “As we get closer, I would be happy to (confidentially) share with you my various experiences with ‘your number one competitor,’ ” McGeady wrote, adding that he would do so only “within the bounds of propriety.”

Holley also aired excerpts of the videotaped deposition given by McGeady’s boss, Ron Whittier, who said he couldn’t recall Microsoft making threats against Intel for trying to develop multimedia software or boasting that it would “extinguish” the market for Internet software supplied by rivals--as McGeady had contended.

But later, lead government trial lawyer David Boies used the same videotape to bolster McGeady’s allegations. He showed a portion in which Whittier said Microsoft employees talked about “smothering” the market for Internet software supplied by rivals such as Netscape.

As one of the top executives at Intel, the 41-year-old McGeady has emerged as a crucial witness for the government. The bearded and bespectacled computer scientist has been described by an Intel spokesman as a reluctant witness. But during his two days on the witness stand, McGeady repeatedly hurled sarcastic barbs at Microsoft lawyer Holley--at one point challenging Holly’s understanding of computer terminology and repeatedly chiding Holley for mischaracterizing his testimony and that of others.

But an unfazed Holley kept the heat on McGeady throughout the day. The attorney introduced a handwritten note from Intel Executive Vice President Frank Gill, who described McGeady as a prima donna and termed McGeady’s Intel Architecture Labs software development unit as “belligerent toward Microsoft.”

Under cross-examination by Holley, McGeady also admitted that he leaked a confidential company memo to the New York Times and in one memo referred to Intel’s then-Chairman Andrew Grove as a “mad dog.”

The Justice Department, 20 states and the District of Columbia have accused Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft of illegally using its dominance in operating system software to extend its power to the Internet and other emerging information technologies and thereby stifle competition.