Gates testifies in $1B lawsuit against Microsoft

Microsoft’s Bill Gates took the witness stand today in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit accusing the software maker of duping a competitor prior to its rollout of Windows 95. Gates began his testimony with a history of Microsoft and was expected to remain on the stand throughout the day. He said he was just 19 when he helped found the software giant. “We thought everybody would have a personal computer on every desk and in every home,” he tells the court. “We wanted to be there and be the first.” Gates, wearing a gray suit and a yellow tie, was the first witness to testify today as Microsoft lawyers presented their case in the trial that’s been ongoing in federal court in Salt Lake City for about a month. Utah-based Novell Inc. sued Microsoft in 2004, claiming the Redmond, Wash., company violated U.S. antitrust laws through its arrangements with other computer makers when it launched Windows 95. Novell says it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss. The company argues Gates, Microsoft’s co-founder, ordered company engineers to reject WordPerfect as a Windows 95 application because he feared it was too good. WordPerfect’s share of the market then plummeted from nearly 50% to less than 10% as Microsoft’s own office programs took hold. Read the full story by The Associated Press here.