Gates back on stand in Utah in $1B antitrust trial


By PAUL FOY

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY - Microsoft's Bill Gates has returned to the witness stand to defend his company in a billion-dollar lawsuit filed by a once-rival software maker.

Novell Inc. says Microsoft tricked it into thinking its WordPerfect writing application would be included in Microsoft's Windows 95 rollout. Novell says it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss.

Gates is Microsoft's first witness in the federal case in Salt Lake City.

Gates says Microsoft dumped a feature that would have supported WordPerfect because he feared it would crash Windows.

The Microsoft co-founder also says that by 1994, WordPerfect's market share was already declining, while Microsoft's own Word program was gaining ground.

A judge denied a motion by Microsoft attorneys to dismiss the case.

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