RE: WSJ on Microsoft's 1995 attempted collusion with Netscape

["John Robert BEHRMAN" <jbehrman@netropolis.net>]

This is dynamite, if true. A dinky private anti-trust lawsuit filed in the
1970's by Texas would-be developers of a "north-south coal-slurry pipeline"
against railroads who met in Denver to block it by refusing to sell passage
under their east-west right-of-way (a Republican Party government givaway)
resulted in a billion-dollar triple-damage award.

If the DoJ is as relentless and focused as the Vinson & Elkins law firm here
in Houston, they can clean the MS clock with something like this.

Of course, they probably do not want anything like that. They will probably
take a little but quick settlement and a new job in the private sector.


::JRB


> -----Original Message-----
> From: am-info@essential.org [mailto:am-info@essential.org]On Behalf Of
> James Love
> Hard to Prove
>
> Charges of attempted collusion can be extremely difficult to prove, and
> a court would be unlikely to conclude that Microsoft had done anything
> illegal based solely on testimony of Netscape officials. But it's
> unknown what other evidence, such as internal Microsoft documents, the
> Justice Department might have about the May 1995 meeting and other
> contacts between the companies.
> --Phil Kuntz and Don Clark contributed to this article.
>