Would Gates’ personal explanation have helped?

WASHINGTON: Microsoft's otherwise unrepentant chairman Bill Gates wondered after the judge's breakup order whether an in-person explanation by him of the innovation and competition in the personal computer industry would have made a difference.

"If we look back, I think it's clear that the whole story of personal computing - how the great things that have been done there and how we created an industry structure that's far more competitive than what was the computer industry before we came along - that story didn't get out," Gates said on ABC's "Good Morning America" programme.

"And I do wonder if I'd taken the time to go back personally and testify, if we might have done a better job in getting that across," he said in an interview that was taped shortly after the judge issued his order but aired on Thursday.

During the 78 days of testimony in the trial that started in October 1998, Gates, the bespectacled, squeaky-voiced co-founder of the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant, never set foot in the Washington, D.C. courtroom where his company defended itself. He did, however, provide videotaped testimony that later underwent intense scrutiny by federal prosecutors.

Microsoft has said it will appeal the order by US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson that it be broken into two companies and will seek to have a higher court issue a stay on implementation of other restrictions Jackson ordered on Microsoft's business practices. The company will remain intact pending its appeal.

In his breakup order, Jackson cited the company's actions, rather than the words of its executives, calling it "untrustworthy" because it failed to carry out his earlier decisions in good faith. The judge said there was "credible evidence" that Microsoft "continues to do business as it has in the past," despite his finding that it had abused its monopoly power in violation of US antitrust laws.

Gates insisted Microsoft did not violate federal antitrust laws. But he said that early in the process he had largely abandoned hope for favorable ruling by Jackson, whom he expects to be overruled by higher courts. "Fairly early on, we knew that we'd probably be better off at the appeals level and what the judge has written today I think really reinforces that," he said. Gates also said he and the company had done everything they could to reach a settlement with the Justice Department.

A mediator announced on April 1 that settlement talks had failed. Two days later, Judge Jackson issued his findings of law determining that Microsoft's use of monopoly power had indeed been illegal, and setting the stage for Wednesday's decision.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.