Microsoft Is Told to Reveal Data
A federal judge Friday delayed Microsoft Corp.’s antitrust trial until Oct. 19 and issued a tough order requiring it to give the government access to its financial databases.
Both sides had requested the four-day delay in the start of the trial.
Microsoft had argued against giving the government more access to its data, contending it had complied with requests for information about its pricing to computer makers.
“I have been shown what you produced, and it doesn’t make any sense to me,” U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson told the lawyers for Microsoft at the last scheduled hearing before the trial begins. “It’s gibberish.”
The Justice Department and 20 states filed their major antitrust lawsuit in May. They charged that Microsoft made illegal use of a monopoly in the Windows operating system software, a product needed by nearly all personal computer makers.
The government is seeking evidence about the company’s pricing practices, which may help it demonstrate how the company wields monopoly power. But government lawyers said they need more information about what the company has actually done.
Jackson’s no-nonsense order set out sanctions for Microsoft if it fails to comply. The judge gave the company a deadline of 10 a.m. Oct. 14 to permit access, or it would be precluded from offering its own evidence at trial about its costs, revenue, licensing and shipping, and the discounts it offers to computer makers.
And, the judge warned Microsoft, if it fails to comply, it “may be subject to further sanctions.”
Each side was permitted to update its witness list Thursday by substituting up to two witnesses.
The government added James Gosling, vice president at workstation maker and Java programming language creator Sun Microsystems Inc.--which has its own lawsuit against Microsoft underway in Sun’s home city of San Jose--and Avadis Tevanian, a senior vice president of software engineering at computer maker Apple Computer Inc.
Microsoft proposed adding Eric Engstrom, general manager of its multimedia efforts, and Robert Muglia, senior vice president of software tools.
