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BusinessWeek: January 31, 2000 |
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Up Front
Talk Show Return to top  Bashing Microsoft (Whatever That Is) For plaintiffs' attorneys, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's 150-page "Finding of Fact" in the Microsoft antitrust case has been a veritable treasure map. Released on Nov. 5, the document describes everything Microsoft did wrong and lists specific evidence supporting each and every government allegation against the software giant. Jackson even throws in a few incendiary quotes about how the company's practices have hurt consumers. Scan the ruling into a word processor, add some legal boilerplate, and presto: instant class action. Some of those Microsoft-bashing lawyers might do well, however, to check their briefs a bit more closely. More than 80 class actions have been filed against the company since November, and new ones arrive almost daily. But in spite of having their entire case laid out before them by a federal judge, some of the plaintiffs' lawyers have managed to get a few basic facts wrong. One of the new suits, filed just three business days after Judge Jackson released his findings, identifies Microsoft as a company "with its principal place of business located within the state of Texas." No doubt that will come as a surprise to the 18,000 employees who work at the software maker's headquarters in Redmond, Wash., just outside of Seattle. Another one of the class actions soberly refers to Microsoft as a supplier of "generic drugs." The filing then proceeds to define "API"--one of the many technical acronyms that are being bandied about in the case--as an "active pharmaceutical ingredient." Microsoft is brandishing these errors as proof that the new class actions are bogus. But even if some of the attorneys involved don't know exactly where Bill Gates works, their suits can't be summarily dismissed. The cases claim that the company abused its monopoly power by overcharging for the Windows operating system. That charge is supported by some of the government's evidence. One 1997 Microsoft study, for example, concluded that the company should charge $89 for a Windows upgrade--even though it could make a profit at $49. With those types of documents floating around, it's possible that despite their dumb mistakes, the plaintiffs' lawyers could end up having the last laugh. Return to top This Ban May Be a Sucker's Bet The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. suffered more game-fixing scandals in the '90s than in its entire prior history. Now it's looking to fix its image with a bill only a bookie could love. It wants Congress to ban legal betting on college sports. On Jan. 26, the NCAA will send Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and Dean Smith, former head basketball coach at the University of North Carolina, to Capitol Hill to push for the ban. The bill's co-sponsors are Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Paterno and Smith will square off against casino interests who say illicit campus betting--not the $690 million legally wagered in Nevada casinos each year on college sports--is the true bad influence on jocks. Casino lobbyist Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has lined up Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to fight the bill. And that may be just a start. Casino interests gave $6.3 million to political campaigns in the last two years, says Common Cause. So for those placing bets on the outcome of this contest, here's a tip: No pol wants to take a gamble on campaign donations in an election year. Return to top | |
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Hey, They Can Open Their Wallets Netscape Communications made plenty of headlines during its heated Web browser war with Microsoft. Netscape also made plenty of people rich when AOL bought it last year. Now some of those rich people are giving back. On Jan. 18, former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale said he would give $100 million to endow a program to boost reading in elementary schools in his home state of Mississippi. And last year, Netscape's former chairman, Jim Clark, gave $150 million to Stanford University, where he once taught. They are the first of Silicon Valley's Internet billionaires to make such large gifts. They do so as the Valley's nouveaux riches have been criticized for being too self-absorbed--or too greedy--for large-scale philanthropy. Barksdale says many are just too busy with work. But he hopes to set an example: "My dream is that a lot of this enormous wealth will go to a lot of worthy causes that will make a difference." The Valley, however, hasn't come close to matching the generosity of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda. They were the top charitable donors in the U.S. last year, handing out $16 billion. Return to top Lights! Camera! Download! All those dealmaking filmmakers at the Jan. 20-30 Sundance Film Festival had best look up from their cell phones once in a while. Otherwise, they might miss the Atom Short Bus, the motor-home Internet company AtomFilms will pilot through the street of Park City, Utah. AtomFilms is one of a dozen such companies that will be at Sundance, seeking Net-worthy fare among the 2,000-odd short films there. "Last year...I spent most of my time explaining what the Internet was," says AtomFilms' Mika Salmi. "Now you have to keep from being trampled." True, no one expects a Web version of The Blair Witch Project, the indie hit that grossed $140 million. Instead, such upstarts as IFILM.com, MediaTrip.com, and clickmovie.com are looking for cutting-edge shorts for their e-audiences. Internet companies pay little for Web film rights, maybe only $500. When a movie is played on the Web, the filmmakers get a fee. But the big lure may be options in a dot.com that may go public. "Of course, I want to be the next Spielberg," says Stuart Acher, whose sci-fi flick Bobby Loves Mangos was bought by AtomFilms. "But heck, getting rich off Internet stock isn't bad until that happens." Return to top Rest Easy, You'll Be Bone-Dry Dealing with soggy corpses may not sound like a growth industry. But it has become that for a Cincinnati company, despite the understandable skepticism of its president. A big problem facing morticians is the fact that human bodies, which are 70% water, begin to leak soon after death. Funeral-home directors live in fear of fluids pouring out of caskets before bodies are buried. So Donald Douthit, research chief at the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science, was thrilled when he stumbled across National Sorbents Inc., which makes a wood-pulp absorbent that can soak up 50 times its weight in liquid. "I met with [President] Dan Jones," says Douthit, "and said, `Do you have any concept of what your material could do for our profession?"' Preoccupied with his main business of selling absorbents for chemical spills, Jones clearly didn't. But the company developed "Dry N' Lock" products, which keep corpses dry for days, replace tissues removed for transplant, and reduce the mess caused by autopsies. Douthit hails the product, while Jones is now eyeing an unforeseen $20 million plus annual market. Return to top Speed Bumps for Road Rage European auto makers, including Renault, Volkswagen, Peugeot, and Mercedes, are worried about rising road rage. They're starting to take steps to curb foul-tempered drivers--for the sake of their own business, at the least. As Wim Verloy, Renault's promotions director in Belgium, says: "If people are afraid on the road, they won't drive as much." Their worries were reinforced by a recent Belgian study showing that 73% of Europeans think aggressive driving, including obscene gestures and intentional collisions, is rising. "Our streets have become like a war zone," says Nathalie Crepin, director of Responsible Young Drivers (RYD), the study's main sponsor. France's Renault, a co-sponsor of the study along with oil giant TotalFina, is offering free driving lessons to all its car buyers under 27. It even provided 120 cars to the RYD on New Year's Eve to chauffeur youth whose drinking might have led to trouble. Where is road rage highest? The study says that Finns and Irish are the best drivers, while Poles, Portuguese, and Greeks rate among the worst. But the trend is negative everywhere. RYD proposes harsh prison terms to punish aggressive drivers. Return to top  Return to top Footnotes Teens who think an "excellent idea" is: parents urging them to excel at science, 55%; receiving a computer, 35% DATA: LEMELSON-MIT AWARDS PROGRAM Return to top |
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