the microsoft file
By WENDY GOLDMAN ROHM
THE SECRET CASE AGAINST BILL GATES
AN INTIMATE ACCOUNT OF THE BIGGEST BUSINESS STORY OF THE DECADE.
Case Closed meets Barbarians at the Gate in this definitive account of the biggest business story of the decade: the case against Microsoft. Award-winning investigative reporter Wendy Rohm, who has been on the Gates case for over a decade, has created a brilliant inside look at the world's most powerful corporate leader.
The Microsoft File is an extraordinary fly-on-the-wall account of Microsoft’s intent to monopolize the computer industry. Wendy Goldman Rohm takes you to the inner sanctum of Microsoft, has you sit in on meetings between Microsoft and important customers and competitors, and looks at the struggles of the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice as they try to develop a strategy to counter one of the most serious charges of market manipulation since John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil.
The Microsoft File is based on information from not one but many "Deep Throats," as well as internal documents that tell a story of:
• How Microsoft’s predatory marketing and pricing behavior belies its claims of fair competition.
• How Microsoft killed the market for a competitor’s operating system, a system that could have challenged MS-DOS.
• How bugging devices were found in the hotel room of a supposed business partner of Microsoft’s the day before a critical meeting with Microsoft.
• How Microsoft inserted hidden code in the beta version of Windows 3.1, creating fear in the marketplace that competing products would crash and adding a byte in the final version that was marketed so the hidden code wouldn’t appear on the screen.
• How close Apple came to discarding the Macintosh operating system for Windows, and the real reason why Bill Gates decided to invest some $250 million in Apple.
• How Microsoft, despite nondisclosure agreements, obtained and used technological secrets from competitors.
• How the biggest mergers in the software industry unfolded, blow-by-blow, as Microsoft’s competitors tried to survive the increasing power of the Gates juggernaut. Is Microsoft’s rise as the world's most powerful and successful company a classic example of the free market, as many Microsoft apologists contend?
Is its success, and the failure of other companies, the result of the creative destruction that makes capitalism so strong? The Microsoft File suggests that other forces were at work.
INSIDE THE MICROSOFT FILEThree bugsIn the detectives upturned palm were three bugs. The man took out the bottle with black powder and a little brush. He dusted the three detectives carefully. No fingerprints were found
A Remarkable TurnaroundIn little more than a year, [The German computer manufacturer] Vobis had been turned around from selling no MS-DOS and 100 percent DR-DOS to selling no DR-DOS and more than 90 percent of its computers with MS-DOS.
A False Diagnosis“What the guy is supposed to do is feel uncomfortable and when he has bugs, suspect the problem is DR-DOS and then go out to buy MS-DOS or decide not to take the risk for the other machines in the office.”
Smile and Shoot“If you are going to kill someone, there isn’t much reason to get all that work up about it and angry. You just pull the trigger. Angry discussions beforehand are a waste of time. We need to smile with Novell while we pull the trigger.”
Pearly Gates and His SidekickNoorda liked to refer the Microsoft chairman as Pearly Gates and [senior VP Steve] Ballmer as Em-Ballmer. That was because “one promises you heaven and the other prepares you for the grave.”
Being Like MikeIt’s no wonder that [other CEOs] were comparing doing business with Bill Gates to having a date with Mike Tyson.
Pocket Change for a Billionaire [Attorney General Janet] Reno’s proposed fine of $1 million a day … was a joke to him. “Every two and a half hours 1 make a million!” Gates bragged.
