Microsoft Exec Changes Statements on Browsers

A Microsoft Corp. executive testified that the world’s largest software company didn’t view Internet browsers as a competitive threat, a statement that contradicts his own words and those of Chairman Bill Gates and other company executives.

Under cross-examination at Microsoft’s antitrust trial, General Manager Dan Rosen said he didn’t perceive Netscape Communications Corp.’s Navigator Web browser as a threat in mid-1995 to Microsoft’s Windows operating system. He also said he was “not certain” that Microsoft and Netscape engaged in a three-year battle for leadership in the market for browsers.

Rosen stuck to his story even after government lead attorney David Boies showed the executive his own statements to the contrary. Boies also confronted Rosen with statements from Gates, Microsoft Group Vice President Paul Maritz and Senior Vice President Brad Chase that undercut his testimony.

The soft-spoken, 49-year-old executive also offered interpretations for words such as “ownership” and “wrest” that caused U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to throw his head back in his leather armchair and stare at the ceiling. After about three hours of frequently circular questioning, Boies abruptly cut Rosen off mid-answer, telling Jackson he had no more questions.

The Justice Department and 19 states suing Microsoft allege the world’s largest software maker viewed Internet browsers as a threat to its Windows monopoly because the new technology had the capacity to run a variety of software. To snuff out the threat, antitrust enforcers allege, Microsoft engaged in a widespread pattern of anti-competitive, illegal behavior.

Separately, Microsoft has been charged in two private antitrust lawsuits that could mark the start of a flood of new litigation against the software giant.

A small Texas company and an individual in California filed separate class-action lawsuits last week charging that Microsoft has illegally kept software prices high through its market dominance.

Gravity Inc. of Fort Worth sued Microsoft and three of the nation’s biggest computer makers over the pricing of computer operating systems and software for word processing and spreadsheets.

If certified, the class action would encompass millions of Americans who have bought computers in the last five years that were made by Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp. or Packard Bell NEC Inc. and preloaded with Microsoft software.

A similar suit, filed in California state court by a San Jose man, targets only Microsoft.

Officials of the computer companies could not be reached or said they had not yet seen the complaints.