Microsoft verdict: A case history

Judge Jackson's ruling that Microsoft should be split into two separate entities marked the start of the final chapter of an anti-trust case that has rumbled on for over two and a half years.

The trial's roots can be traced as far back as 1990 when the US Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into possible collusion between Microsoft and IBM in the software market.

silicon.com looks back at the history of the trial.

* 1997 *

October
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) fines Microsoft $1m a day for violating consent decree by bundling Internet Explorer with Windows 95.
Sun Microsystems issues Microsoft with a lawsuit over the Java programming language. The claim argues that Microsoft deliberately changed the Java specification in its Internet Explorer 4.0 browser and its software developers kit. Microsoft countersues Sun, charging that Java hasn't lived up to its promises.

December
Microsoft ordered to unbundle browser in preliminary injunction issued by Judge Jackson.

* 1998 *

January
Microsoft agrees to let licencees install Windows 95 without Internet Explorer icon on the desktop.

March
Bill Gates appears before House Judiciary Committee and defends Microsoft.

May
Appellate court rules that injunction against bundling does not apply to Windows 98.
DoJ and 20 states hit Microsoft with anti-trust suit alleging it is using its operating systems monopoly to muscle in on the Internet browser market.

June
Appellate Court overturns Windows 95 preliminary injunction.

July
DoJ asks Microsoft for Windows 95 and 98 source code.

August
Microsoft files motion attempting to dismiss suit. Bill Gates testifies for pre-trial depositions.

September
DoJ expands allegations of Microsoft using its monopoly to interfere with competition.

19 October
Day one of Microsoft's anti-trust case against the DoJ. Gates appears briefly in videotaped testimony.

20 October
The DoJ's first witness, Jim Barksdale, CEO of rival browser company Netscape, claims that in 1995 Microsoft threatened to crush Netscape if it stood in its way in the Internet browser market.

22 October
Microsoft denies allegations, claiming Netscape fabricated allegations that Microsoft tried to force it to illegally split the Web browser market in 1995.

28/29 October
AOL enters the fray. Evidence of a proposed 1995 'grand alliance' between Netscape and AOL against Microsoft.
Evidence of 1996 deal between AOL and Microsoft to use IE as 'virtually exclusive' browser for AOL customer base, which then numbered 13 million.

30 October
Avadis Trevanian, senior Apple executive, accuses Microsoft of bullying to control their use of browser technology. He also claims Microsoft built bugs into its operating systems preventing Apple multimedia software from working on the Microsoft platform.

2 November
Bill Gates' videotaped testimony in which he denies the string of aggressive emails aimed at industry competitors Apple, Intel, Netscape and Sun Microsystems.

5 November
With reference to Apple's Quicktime multimedia technology, Avadis Trevanian claims Microsoft told Apple to "knife the baby" if it wanted to survive in the multimedia software market.

17 November
Sun Microsystems wins preliminary injunction against Microsoft in its Java case. The pre-trial hearing rules that unless Microsoft's Java products meet Sun's standards within 90 days, the products - which include Windows 98 - will be banned from the market.

* 1999 *

12 January
Microsoft's response to the US government's allegations begins with a closed hearing to allow testimony from Dell and Compaq. Neither companies will reveal how much they paid Microsoft for Windows.

24 March
Microsoft approaches some of the 19 states co-suing the company with a settlement offer.

28 April
The software giant calls in witnesses from AOL and Sun in an effort to prove it faces a tough battle for survival against a determined opposition.

1 June
Economics professor at MIT Franklin Fisher testifies that Microsoft used its monopoly to give away the IE in an attempt to force the competitors from the market.

22 September
The US government winds up its case by saying that the software giant was a company that didn't know when to stop. Microsoft strikes back accusing the prosecution of "red herrings, mis-statements and omissions".

5 November
In his 207-page "findings of fact", Judge Jackson rules that Microsoft wields monopoly power in the PC operating systems.

* 2000 *

22 February
Jackson hints that the solution to a guilty verdict could be divestiture, as the two sides have a last chance to put their cases forward.

1 April
After four months, attempts to reach a settlement are shelved, with the mediator saying the differences were too great.

3 April
Microsoft is found to have broken US competition laws - 23 months after the legal case was launched.

28 April
The DoJ proposes that Microsoft be split in two.

10 May
Microsoft's attempt to avoid a forcible divestiture is rejected by the DoJ.
The software giant makes a counter-offer to the DoJ's proposal to split the company in two by releasing some of its source code and to allow manufacturers to hide the IE browser.

23 May
Judge Jackson dismisses the company's request to avoid being split in two companies, and instead endorses a suggestion from lobby groups that it should be split in three.

7 June
In the final ruling in the trial, Judge Jackson rules that Microsoft will be split into two companies: an operating systems and an application business.