At the antitrust trial in Washington Thursday, Microsoft Corp’s key economist witness, professor Richard Schmalensee was shown to have used survey information that had been paid for by Microsoft that reached conclusions requested by Bill Gates. Schmalensee, whose more the 500 page testimony draws heavily on market surveys and advertising supported trade press, said he would not have changed his testimony anyway. As I used it, it is not misleading, it is a random survey done by a third party research firm,” he said, the purpose is not relevant. Schmalensee was responding to questions from after the government’s lead lawyer David Boies who had presented several Microsoft emails, including one in which Gates set out what he wanted in the survey. It would HELP ME IMMENSELY to have a survey showing that 90% of developers believe that putting the browser into the (operating system) makes sense,” wrote Gates on February 14, 1998. Gates said he wanted the survey to use in his appearance before a Senate Judiciary Committee last March. Schmalensee’s written testimony showed that the survey came close to Gate’s request. In the testimony Schmalensee says the survey showed that 85% predicted that Microsoft’s integration of internet functions into Windows would help their company, and 83% predicted it would help consumers.” However, Schmalensee makes no reference to how the question had been asked, something he said in court he would have done If I had known we were going to have this colloquy, I might have added a phrase on the phrasing of the question. The 350- word question that elicited that positive response detailed the benefits of integration and no disadvantages. An internal memo presented in court by David Boies revealed that Microsoft’s market research department was aware that the survey was not an unbiased opinion poll. A memo by Ann Redmond, a researcher for Microsoft, written on February 23, 1998, said the survey was “not entirely unbiased,” and she “would avoid releasing the question to the press.”
