Editing Bill Gates (section)

=== Antitrust litigation ===
{{Further |United States Microsoft antitrust case|European Union Microsoft competition case}}
[[File:US v. Microsoft Bill Gates Color.png|thumb|Gates giving his deposition at Microsoft on August 27, 1998]]

During his tenure as CEO of Microsoft, Gates approved of many decisions that led to [[United States antitrust law|antitrust]] litigation over Microsoft's business practices. In the 1998 ''[[United States v. Microsoft]]'' case, Gates gave [[Deposition (law)|deposition]] testimony that several journalists characterized as evasive. He argued with examiner [[David Boies]] over the contextual meaning of words such as "compete", "concerned", and "we". Later in the year, when portions of the videotaped deposition were played back in court, the judge was seen laughing and shaking his head.<ref name="GatesDepositionJudgeLaugh">{{cite news |last=Wasserman |first=Elizabeth |date=November 17, 1998 |title=Gates deposition makes judge laugh in court |work=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9811/17/judgelaugh.ms.idg/index.html |url-status=live |access-date=April 10, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130407052251/http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9811/17/judgelaugh.ms.idg/index.html |archive-date=April 7, 2013}}</ref> ''BusinessWeek'' reported:

{{blockquote|Early rounds of his deposition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying "I don't recall" so many times that even the presiding judge had to chuckle. Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance were directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of e-mail that Gates both sent and received.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=March 30, 2008 |url=http://www.businessweek.com/1998/48/b3606125.htm |title=Microsoft's Teflon Bill |work=BusinessWeek |date=November 30, 1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080407081113/http://www.businessweek.com/1998/48/b3606125.htm |archive-date=April 7, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

Gates later said that he had simply resisted attempts by Boies to mischaracterize his words and actions. "Did I fence with Boies?&nbsp;... I plead guilty&nbsp;... rudeness to Boies in the first degree."<ref name="truth">{{cite magazine |last1=Heilemann |first1=John |date=November 1, 2000 |title=The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth |url=http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/8.11/microsoft.html |url-status=dead |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |volume=8 |issue=11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528131641/http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/8.11/microsoft.html |archive-date=May 28, 2014 |access-date=March 31, 2008}}</ref> Despite Gates's denials, the judge ruled that Microsoft had committed [[monopolization]], [[tying (commerce)|tying]] and blocking competition, each in violation of the [[Sherman Antitrust Act]].<ref name="truth" />