States Ask for Memo as Evidence

A Microsoft Corp. executive urged the company to quietly retaliate against supporters of the rival Linux operating system in an August 2000 memo that nine states still suing the software giant want admitted as evidence.

The nine states seeking stiff antitrust sanctions against Microsoft late Monday asked the judge in the case to reconsider her decision that shielded Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates from the e-mail message during his testimony last month.

In the memo, Microsoft Senior Vice President Joachim Kempin complained to Gates and other senior executives that chip maker Intel Corp. was encouraging computer makers to support Linux and funding development of new devices that would work with Linux.

Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said Kempin’s memo was “irrelevant” because the company never acted on his ideas.

He said the company’s attorneys were expected to file a response late Tuesday.

Linux has been touted as a possible alternative to Windows.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly disallowed the Kempin memo after Microsoft’s lawyers objected to it.

The states’ attorneys argued in their filing Monday that Kempin’s e-mail shows Microsoft continued to discuss anti-competitive tactics even though the original trial judge had already ruled those tactics in violation of antitrust law.