In one portion of his deposition, Jim Barksdale describes how in a meeting with Netscape, Microsoft proposed dividing the browser market -- or else:

Mike Homer, Andreessen, and I represented Netscape at the June 21 meeting. Rosen led the Microsoft contingent, although he was accompanied by a number of other Microsoft employees, only some of whom I remember. Marc Andreessen's notes of the meeting indicate that the other Microsoft attendees were Anthony Bay, J. Allard, Tom Reardon, Chris Jones, Barb Fox, and Richard Wolf. I remember that, for the most part, each Microsoft employee appeared to be responsible for discussing a different area of technology.

The discussion at the meeting covered some of the matters on which Andreessen and Rosen had previously communicated. Microsoft personnel made presentations about the various technologies that Microsoft was interested in persuading us to adopt. Mike Homer and I asked questions. Andreessen and Rosen had previously communicated. Microsoft personnel made presentations about the various technologies that Microsoft was interested in persuading us to adopt. Mike Homer and I asked questions. Andreessen, for the most part, typed notes of the meeting on his notebook computer. Marc, who is an extraordinarily fast typist, frequently typed notes during meetings, and, on this particular occasion, I may have even asked him to take notes.....

The most notable thing about the meeting was something entirely different and something not covered in the proposed agenda. Microsoft's officials made it clear that they believed that Netscape should work with them on areas other than a browser for Windows 95, but that we should not develop our own browser for Windows 95 because they intended to build a Microsoft browser for the Windows 95 operating system. They proposed that a "line" be drawn between the area in which we developed products and competed and the area in which they developed products. Microsoft proposed that we build products that would run on top of the Windows95 operating system and browser. They offered to allow us to continue to develop browsers for other operating systems, as long as we did not try to compete with them in developing a browser for the Windows 95 platform, which, of course, we all anticipated would shortly be the dominant operating system. Microsoft also proposed making an investment in our company and obtaining a board seat. Microsoft officials said that, if we agreed to the "special relationship" they proposed, Microsoft would support us by making Netscape a "preferred" ISV. The Microsoft personnel made clear that issues concerning the RNA API and related technical information we had been seeking could be resolved"[d]epending on how we walk out of this room today" If we agreed to the "special relationship" that they proposed, the Microsoft representatives said that we would be the first ISV to receive the technical information, mentioning that they already had an internal solution for the issue we were addressing.

Recognizing that our main goal for this meeting was to get access to certain code and APIs necessary for our product development, I remember asking whether obtaining those things was tied to our acceptance of this "special relationship" Microsoft had proposed, including the market division, equity investment and board seat they proposed. Microsoft's answer was that our obtaining the necessary technical information "certainly isn't independent" of our accepting their proposal. This fairly clear threat bothered me greatly. If we refused to agree, Microsoft made it very clear that they would attempt to crush us by attempting to own the client.

I have never been in a meeting in my 33-year business career in which a competitor had so blatantly implied that we should either stop competing with it or the competitor would kill us. In all my years in business, I have never heard nor experienced such an explicit proposal to divide markets.

COMPLETE TEXT OF THE DEPOSITION