The Justice Department's rather fluid probe of Microsoft's business practices is oozing into another direction, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reports that investigators want to know if Redmond tried to use the potent combination of muscle and candy to keep Netscape out of the Windows browser market back in 1995.
Investigators are apparently focusing on a meeting between "high-level" representatives of the companies in May of that year. Microsoft says it was there merely to check out Netscape's browser technology and that at some point Netscape proposed that Microsoft invest in the company. But Netscape officials have characterized the meeting quite differently.
"It was like a visit by Don Corleone," Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen told The Journal. "I expected to find a bloody computer monitor in my bed the next day." Microsoft's message was clear, Andreessen went on: "You either let us invest in your company or we won't give you access" to Windows.
Whatever happened, Netscape and Microsoft didn't get together. Netscape went public in August 1995, Microsoft took aim at it, and a period of tech history known as "The Browser Wars" was upon us.
Microsoft vehemently denies the accusation of attempted collusion, calling it a "tall tale that is being concocted by Netscape to advance their political agenda." And as The Journal points out, without evidence beyond the assertions of Netscape officials, it will be difficult for authorities to make a case against Microsoft.
The Justice Department had no comment on the reported investigation. The Journal based its story on "people close to the probe."
