Continuing his interest in the economic underpinnings of the high technology industry today, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who is presiding over the Microsoft antitrust trial, wondered how portal sites made their money. Defender John Warden had submitted as evidence a newswire article describing portals like Yahoo, Lycos and Excite as the new desktops, pointing out that they offer services like free email and scheduling which compete with parts of Microsoft’s Office application suite. Who makes money from these sites and how do they make it? asked the judge. The truth is that founders and VCs make money by taking the companies public, and that shareholders make money only by selling the inflated stock. Microsoft witness Paul Maritz insisted, however, that advertising and subscriptions provided revenue streams to the portals. Maybe one day. Maritz did undercut the authority of his answer somewhat by chuckling when he gave it.
