REDMOND, Wash., May 3, 1999 — Microsoft Corp. on Monday named the three witnesses the company will call to testify in the rebuttal phase of the government’s antitrust trial, which is expected to resume in the next few weeks.
Microsoft plans to call David Colburn, senior vice president for business affairs of America Online; Gordon Eubanks, president and CEO of Oblix Inc.; and Professor Richard Schmalensee, dean of the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Our rebuttal witnesses will show that the $10 billion merger of AOL and Netscape completely undercuts the government’s case. Our rebuttal witnesses will also show that competition and innovation are stronger than ever in the software industry, and that consumers are seeing extraordinary benefits from Microsoft and the industry as a whole.,”
said William H. Neukom, Microsoft senior vice president for law and corporate affairs.
On Monday, Microsoft named the following rebuttal witnesses:
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David Colburn, senior vice president for business affairs for America Online, who testified on behalf of the government last October. Microsoft will question Colburn as a hostile witness on how the merger of American Online and Netscape undermines the government’s case. In view of the merger and evidence Microsoft has gathered through court-authorized discovery, the company will also question Colburn about
“the completeness and candor of prior testimony”
given by Colburn in this case, according to a summary of rebuttal witness testimony filed with the court by Microsoft on Monday. -
Gordon Eubanks, president and CEO of Oblix, a business directory software manufacturer and former CEO of Symantec, the leading software utilities manufacturer. Oblix, based in Mountain View, Calif., is a privately held company that counts Novell Inc., Netscape Communications Corp. and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a leading venture capital firm, among its investors. Eubanks will testify on the dynamic competition that exists throughout the software industry, and the benefits of that competition for innovation and consumers.
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Professor Richard Schmalensee, dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. Professor Schmalensee will testify on a variety of economic issues related to the case, including the fact that rapid changes in the industry – like the recent AOL-Netscape-Sun deal – make the government’s case unnecessary and unfounded.
The rebuttal phase of the trial is scheduled to begin on the first Monday following the conclusion of arguments in a criminal narcotics case currently being heard by Federal District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson.
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