Oh please, say it is'nt so. Not bill. He, he, he. According to CNN it is a good possibility he may have to appear. Lets see Windows bail him out of this one. So what does everyone think. Will Bill get MS out of this one or will they nail him to the wall?

The link: http://money.cnn.com/2002/02/11/tech.../microsoft_re/

The article:
Gates may appear at hearingFebruary 11, 2002: 7:20 a.m. ET

Ballmer, 10 other officials also named as possible witnesses at settlement hearing.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates and other top executives may testify in upcoming court hearings in a bid to convince a federal judge to reject any stricter sanctions against the giant software company.

Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) named Gates, along with Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and 10 other company officials, as possible witnesses for the hearings on sanctions, which are scheduled to start March 11.

Gates and the other officials will argue that Federal Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly should not impose any sanctions beyond those that the company agreed to in November in a settlement with the Justice Department and nine states of the federal government's landmark antitrust case against Microsoft.

In particular, they will be trying to fend off more severe remedies that have been proposed by nine other states, which have refused to sign on to the settlement and are continuing to press the case in court.

Gates will tell the judge that the stricter sanctions would hobble collaboration in the computer industry and thus be bad for the business and consumers, Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said Sunday.

Gates did not testify in person during the trial, and some legal analysts have said that decision damaged Microsoft's defense. Instead, the Justice Department showed the trial judge parts of Gates videotaped deposition, in which he appeared evasive.

The settlement would, among other things, give computer makers more freedom to feature rival software and more freedom to decide what software to put on the machines they sell.

But the dissenting states are pressing the judge to impose stronger remedies, including a provision that would force the company to sell a stripped-down version of its Windows operating system.

One of the people that Microsoft's attorneys may want to call for the hearing is Oracle Corp. executive Ken Glueck, whom Microsoft contends helped write the tougher antitrust sanctions being sought by the dissenting state attorneys general.

In a federal court filing on Friday, Microsoft said Glueck was one of the "prime movers" behind the remedies being sought as an alternative to a settlement of the government's antitrust case against the world's largest independent software company.