Microsoft Witness Admits Attempt to Split Browser Turf

A government attorney tried to chip away at the credibility of a Microsoft executive on Tuesday, getting him to acknowledge the software giant offered rival Netscape Communications “several inducements” to stop competing in the Internet browser market.

The latest effort against Microsoft’s defense came during further cross-examination of Dan Rosen, the company’s general manager for new technology. At one point, Justice Department attorney David Boies accused Rosen of making up his answers.

Rosen is a key witness because he was at a disputed June 21, 1995, meeting of Netscape and Microsoft officials. The government claims Microsoft offered to split the Internet browser market with Netscape, which dominated the market at the time.

Microsoft is accused of threatening to “crush” Netscape if it continued to sell its browser on computers using newer versions of Windows.

Rosen has denied repeatedly that Microsoft ever threatened Netscape, but he acknowledged that “we offered them several inducements if they adopted several of our technologies.”

Rosen said Microsoft simply tried to provide technological tools that would have allowed Netscape to make its Web browser compatible with Windows.

Rosen also was questioned about the first time he tried to obtain Netscape’s browser for computers that used Windows 95.

He first told Boies it was sometime in July 1995--more than a month after the June 21 meeting. That answer, however, drew a challenge from the government.

“You don’t remember that, do you, sir? You’re just making that up,” Boies said. Rosen adamantly denied it.

But after Boies presented two e-mail messages Rosen wrote to his colleagues in April and May 1995, Rosen responded, “I stand corrected.”

Rosen said he never actually got the browser, which was a test version that did not work properly.

The government also raised questions about Rosen’s Monday testimony over the disputed Netscape meeting. And as Rosen testified Monday, the judge who will decide the verdict rolled his eyes and sometimes shook his head at Rosen’s answers.

Before Rosen took the stand Tuesday to be questioned by Microsoft’s own attorney, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson told Microsoft lawyer Michael Lacovara: “It is always inspiring to watch young people embark on heroic endeavors.”