There was explosive testimony in the early part of Avadis Tevanian's second day of testimony.
Tevanian, a senior vice president at Apple Computer, testified that Microsoft officials as recently as this past winter made explicit demands that Apple cede its market for multimedia playback technology to Microsoft. Tevanian described an April 1997 meeting at which Microsoft first told Apple it should exit the consumer market for multimedia playback on the PC and concentrate instead on software tools used to develop Internet content.
Dow Jones news service said Tevanian recounted an exchange between Microsoft and Apple Computer in which Microsoft told Apple it wanted to 'knife the baby,' meaning Apple's QuickTime multimedia software.
According to Dow Jones, Tevanian said that at a 1997 meeting between Apple's Peter Hoddie and Microsoft's Christopher
Phillips, the following exchange took place: Hoddie asked, "Do you want us to knife the baby?"
Meaning QuickTime. Phillips responded: "Yes, we're talking about knifing the baby."
Tevanian said he did not personally attend the meeting. It was not clear whether the comments were exchanged at the same meeting in which Tevanian claims Microsoft told Apple to pull QuickTime from the consumer market.
Story to follow.
Inter@ctive Week's Will Rodger contributed to this story.
