ARE MICROSOFT EXECS PLAYING DEAF, DUMB, AND BLIND?
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was being grilled by government attorneys at that very moment. But company President Steve Ballmer couldn’t resist a little humor on Aug. 28. Asked what he planned to say to trustbusters in his own deposition, Ballmer said that he would take his cue from Sargeant Schultz on the old Hogan’s Heroes TV show. “I see nothing! I know nothing!” he deadpanned in a fake German accent. Ballmer was joking, of course. But the Justice Dept. is in no mood for frivolity. In its latest documents in the antitrust case against Microsoft, filed on Sept. 1, Justice complained that Microsoft’s execs so far “claim an astonishing lack of recall” during depositions given to the government. The authors and recipients of E-mails at the Redmond (Wash.) company have claimed they don’t remember sending or receiving them, Justice charged. None of the examples the government cites are in the public record, so it’s impossible to evalute the complaint. But Justice’s lament shows just how unciv
