Thursday, March 21, 2002

WSJ.com - AOL's Netscape Buy An Issue Again In Microsoft Trial "AOL-Time Warner Inc.'s (AOL) 1998 purchase of Netscape Communications Inc. again became an issue in the Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) antitrust trial Wednesday... Netscape's complaint to the Justice Department in 1996 about Microsoft's efforts to crush its seminal Navigator Internet browser sparked the case, which began about a month before Netscape was swallowed by AOL. Microsoft said AOL's purchase proved Netscape still had value - an argument that didn't prove key in findings reached in that stage of the case by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson... But Microsoft attorney John Warden cited a Monday Wall Street Journal article stating that AOL is now considering using the Netscape browser instead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Cross-examining former Netscape President James Barksdale , Warden asked whether that is not proof that Microsoft didn't destroy Netscape... AOL's 34 million subscribers "account for one-third of the use of Internet Explorer," Warden said. "It's been an open question for some time that AOL would discontinue the use of Internet Explorer and use the technology that it owns," Warden said."

More fun: "Judge Kollar-Kotelly questioned Sullivan's use of the states' 100 hour allotment of time to ask questions of Barksdale that seemingly repeated some of those facts as well as his written testimony." "Time is ticking away," she said. But she added: "if you want to go through repetitive information, go ahead."



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