Microsoft's antitrust battles are threatening to engulf the entire US computer industry as new allegations and counter-charges involving several of the industry's largest companies are dragged into the case.
Less than two weeks before the scheduled start of the landmark antitrust trial against Microsoft by the US Justice Department and 20 state attorneys-general, the complex relationships between the software giant's rivals and partners are coming under increased scrutiny.
Microsoft has issued subpoenas to Apple Computer, International Business Machines, Intel, Netscape Communications, Novell, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and others, demanding information about their "efforts to collaborate in competition with Microsoft". The companies have been "doing everything Microsoft is doing, and possibly more", Microsoft said.
Intel is already facing antitrust charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission. Microsoft's subpoenas appear to be an attempt to seek evidence of conspiracies by rivals to undermine its market position. In effect, the company is saying that, if it is charged with antitrust violations, then several other companies in the industry should also face charges.
Microsoft said it had issued the subpoenas in response to "new and groundless allegations" introduced by the Justice Department last week. In a move to bolster their case against the software group, prosecutors added charges that the company had used its monopoly power to pressure Intel, Apple and others to drop multimedia software development efforts.
Until then the case had focused largely on allegations that Microsoft used its market strength to squash competition from Netscape Communications in the market for Internet browsers.
Prosecutors have portrayed Microsoft as a bully, hitting out at its smaller rivals. However, the Justice Department has given Microsoft an opportunity to present a more detailed picture of its role within the computer industry and the complicated mix of rivalry and collaboration in which it operates.
The industry has coined the term "co-opetition" to describe how companies compete vigorously in one market segment, only to co-operate in another.
Just this week, for example, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems are facing each other in a Californian courtroom in a dispute over Java, a software development technology. Yet on Wednesday, Sun announced moves to make its computers run on applications designed for Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Broader collaborative pacts within the computer industry have been triggered by efforts to establish standards that enable different types of computers and software to work together.
But under the scrutiny of antitrust laws industry pacts might appear to be illegal collusion if they were presented as combined efforts to compete against Microsoft.
