– The court held a forty-five closed session before commencing Thursday morning. Judge Jackson said that the court had been discussing sensitive commercial information. ComputerWire notes that America Online Inc’s new subscriber numbers and the revenues made from these subscribers between fiscal 1995 to 1998, which were requested by the defense yesterday, were not aired in open court today.
– America Online Inc boss Steve Case writing in an email about negotiations that led to the March 1996 deal with Netscape Communications Corp, declared that he considered the relationship more as of a shotgun marriage versus true love.
– Defense attorney John Warden, while questioning America Online (AOL) Inc’s David Colburn about AOL’s efforts to get a customized embeddable browser from Netscape, asked, was it a problem for you that Netscape regarded AOL’s proprietary service as a thing from the past? Colburn replied that the situation at the time (early 1996) had to be considered, and that many people felt the internet and MSN [Microsoft Network] would wipe out AOL.
– Having been subjected to an especially dense clause of the AOL/Netscape Instant Messaging contract, David Colburn sighed, and exclaimed, language only a lawyer could love.
– Asked by the defense, were you considering in August 1997 making a large browser deal [with Netscape] and surprising Microsoft? Colburn replied that any company is always considering its options but that AOL wasn’t considering changing the source of its primary browser at that time because its contract with Microsoft ran until January 1 1999.
– John Warden, in part of a long string of questioning aimed at proving that AOL had played Microsoft and Netscape off against each other in order to get the best deal out of both, asked Colburn about his negotiating tactics with Netscape. Did the firm, even after the AOL/Microsoft deal, hold out the hope of becoming AOL’s default browser supplier? Colburn, who seemed surprised, asked, with me on the other side of the table? I’m not sure. Warden said, I don’t think I’ll pursue that.
– In his closing questions, John Warden asked if AOL subscribers had a free and unfettered choice over what browser they used. David Colburn agreed that the user did, but added that the Netscape offering was avaible if they can get to it.
