Government lawyers have said they intend to show in court roughly eight of the 20 hours they spent this summer questioning Gates, the world's wealthiest man and the famous executive synonymous with Microsoft's dramatic success. The new testimony and evidence Thursday showed that AOL, the world's largest Internet provider, pressed Netscape to give up a seat on its board of directors during the 1996 negotiations and, when it balked, demanded that AOL be allowed to run Netscape's popular Web site. The deal with Netscape never materialized, and in fact AOL agreed in March 1996 to distribute Microsoft's browser rather than Netscape's. By late 1995, AOL genuinely feared the burgeoning growth of the Internet, which was largely fueled by use of Netscape's browser, the software that lets people view information on the Web. As a proprietary online service, AOL saw rivals in both the Internet and in Microsoft's then-new online service, called MSN, which was included as part of its dominant Windows operating system.
Antitrust laws prohibit using monopoly power in one market to expand into others.
Netscape's Web site was particularly attractive to AOL because it was usually the first page seen by Netscape's millions of customers after they logged onto the Internet. We were looking for an overall strategic relationship. By The Associated Press Copyright 1999 Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.