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Anti-rival Windows bug?
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August 27, 1998: 7:22 a.m. ET
E-mail shows Microsoft discussed planting software bugs to repel rivals
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - On the day when Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is scheduled to give his deposition, evidence that the software giant wrongfully used its marketplace dominance appears to be mounting.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Microsoft engineers discussed in 1991 a plan to hide software bugs in an early version of Microsoft Windows to trip up competing operating systems. The discussion came after a competitor positioned itself to upset the company's monopoly share of the DOS operating system market.
In a Sept. 30, 1991, message about the plan that used the electronic mail names of members of his team, David Cole, head of Windows development, told another executive that "aaronr had some pretty wild ideas after three or so beers -- earleh has some too."
If the proposed bug detected non-Microsoft programs trying to work with Windows, it would "put competitors on a treadmill" and "should surely crash at some point shortly later," he wrote.
The e-mail messages are being used in a private antitrust suit against Microsoft by Caldera, Inc. The small Utah company claims the software giant unfairly tried to push it out of the DOS market. Those e-mails, however, could find their way into the current antitrust suit against Microsoft by federal and state regulators.
Microsoft attorneys told the Journal that the e-mails are the equivalent of informal discussions and do not represent company policy.
Throughout the various antitrust challenges, Microsoft has maintained that it is not unfairly using its market power and that competitors are merely using the legal system to try and win gains they cannot win in the marketplace.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department has asked several Intel Corp. executives if Microsoft Corp. tried to intimidate the chip maker into keeping its technology "Microsoft friendly."
A source familiar with Intel's legal activities told CNNfn Wednesday that several company officials had given depositions to the Justice Department recently regarding an August 1995 meeting between Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Intel chairman Andrew Grove, who was the company's chief executive officer at the time.
The Justice Department reportedly is reviewing notes from that meeting that suggest Gates made "vague threats" about backing Intel competitors if Intel brought new technology to the market that superseded or conflicted with Microsoft's software platform.
The government's antitrust suit, set to go to trial Sept. 23, accuses Microsoft of using its monopoly in computer operating systems to gain unfair advantages in other areas, including the Internet.
Gates will begin his formal deposition to a body of 20 state attorneys-general Thursday at the Microsoft corporate headquarters in Redmond, Wash., a source told CNNfn.
Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) closed down ¼ Wednesday at 112-9/16 on the Nasdaq. 
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