William Neukom

Bill Gates, 44 Microsoft Chairman William H. Gates III co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with his friend Paul Allen shortly after Gates dropped out of Harvard in his junior year. He was chief executive of Microsoft until this year, when he named Steve Ballmer to that position. He is now chairman and chief software architect at the company and the richest person in the world. He did not appear at the trial, but excerpts of his videotaped deposition were played frequently.

The longtime architect of Microsoft Corp.'s aggressive legal strategy will retire next year and be succeeded by a deputy who has focused on fighting software piracy and dealing with government officials, especially overseas. Microsoft General Counsel William H. Neukom, 60, said Wednesday that he will turn over day-to-day leadership to Brad Smith early next year and leave the firm in July after 22 years.

William Neukom was a 37-year-old junior member of a Seattle law firm in 1979 when one of the managing partners approached him with a special assignment. "He told me, 'My son and his business partners are moving their business up here from New Mexico. I thought you could keep an eye on them,' " Neukom remembered. The managing partner was William Gates Jr.

Bill Gates, 44 Microsoft Chairman William H. Gates III co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with his friend Paul Allen shortly after Gates dropped out of Harvard in his junior year. He was chief executive of Microsoft until this year, when he named Steve Ballmer to that position. He is now chairman and chief software architect at the company and the richest person in the world. He did not appear at the trial, but excerpts of his videotaped deposition were played frequently.

The longtime architect of Microsoft Corp.'s aggressive legal strategy will retire next year and be succeeded by a deputy who has focused on fighting software piracy and dealing with government officials, especially overseas. Microsoft General Counsel William H. Neukom, 60, said Wednesday that he will turn over day-to-day leadership to Brad Smith early next year and leave the firm in July after 22 years.

Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that its hot-selling Windows 3.0 software program will be included in the ongoing copyright infringement suit filed by Apple Computer, a development that could expose Microsoft to a much-higher financial penalty if it loses the complaint. The software publisher said it was informed Tuesday by Apple lawyers that the 3-year-old lawsuit would be expanded to include Windows 3.

Peter Magowan, the owner who brought Barry Bonds to San Francisco, built a new ballpark and kept major league baseball in the city, is stepping down as managing partner of the Giants. Magowan, 66, will retire from his duties at the end of the season on Oct. 1 but maintain an ownership stake, the team said Friday. American Bar Assn. President William Neukom, a current partner in the Giants group, will take over for Magowan.

Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that allegations it bullied Intel Corp., Apple Computer Inc. and others are irrelevant to a landmark government antitrust case against the software giant. In a 48-page brief reiterating its demand that the case be dismissed, Microsoft said the latest allegations of misconduct have been raised by state and federal antitrust regulators because of "fatal shortcomings" in their original complaint brought last May.

Addressing a crowd of sympathetic shareholders, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates declared that the government's antitrust case against his company contains "outrageous" and "untrue" claims and won't serve the interests of consumers and innovation. "We have incredible respect for the legal system but we look at the case and we have to ask, is this being brought on behalf of consumers or a handful of competitors?"

William Neukom was a 37-year-old junior member of a Seattle law firm in 1979 when one of the managing partners approached him with a special assignment. "He told me, 'My son and his business partners are moving their business up here from New Mexico. I thought you could keep an eye on them,' " Neukom remembered. The managing partner was William Gates Jr.

In his third day under cross-examination in the landmark antitrust trial, IBM Corp. executive Garry Norris backed down from his claim that Microsoft Corp. pressured IBM to abandon its competing SmartSuite productivity software and OS/2 personal computer operating system. Norris, a 17-year IBM veteran who negotiated key software licensing agreements with Microsoft, offered rare insight into the contentious business dealings between the software giant and the world's largest computer maker.

By allowing computer users to surf the Internet using a highly visual display, Netscape's Navigator browser has transformed the medium from little more than an e-mail forum for academics into a marketplace and town hall for the world. Now, Netscape seems set for acquisition by one of the very companies it helped inspire, America Online.