Witness Says Microsoft Seeks Monopoly in Browser Market

The government’s final witness in the Microsoft Corp. antitrust trial said in a deposition that the software giant would probably win monopoly power in Web browsers unless the courts intervened.

Economist Franklin Fisher’s testimony was filed in October, before Microsoft’s chief rival in the browser market, Netscape Communications Corp., agreed to be acquired by America Online Inc., giving Netscape a lock on a substantial part of the Internet market.

The testimony of Fisher, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, goes to the heart of the allegations brought by the Justice Department and 19 states against Microsoft. The government alleges that Microsoft used its monopoly in the operating-system market to compete unfairly and attempted to crush Netscape.

Microsoft has challenged the relevance of the case given the deal between AOL and Netscape, but the government has argued that Microsoft demonstrated a pattern of behavior that violated antitrust laws.

Fisher said Microsoft, operating at the direction of Chairman Bill Gates, set out to destroy Netscape.

When it discovered that Netscape received one-fifth to one-half of its revenue from the browser, Microsoft decided to give away its Internet Explorer browser to deprive Netscape of income, Fisher said.

As part of its campaign, Microsoft made deals with competitors, among them Intuit Inc., in an effort to promote Internet Explorer.

Intuit President William Harris testified Tuesday that his company evaluated Web browsers from Microsoft and Netscape and would probably have decided, based on the merits, to use the Microsoft browser with Intuit’s Quicken money management software.

Harris testified that Microsoft offered his company a coveted place on its desktop in return for his firm’s agreement to stop doing business with Netscape. Intuit accepted the Microsoft offer.

In videotaped testimony played in court Tuesday, Gates said he knew nothing of the deal.