Microsoft info bid fails

Crucial information about the web browser war with Netscape, gleaned by professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University for an as yet unpublished book, cannot be used by the global software giant Microsoft in its defence against the US goverment's anti-trust suit.

Bill Gates's company issued a subpoena last month to obtain the transcript of Competing on Internet Time: Lessons on Netscape and Its Battle With Microsoft by Michael Cusumano of MIT's Sloan School of Management and David Yoffie of Harvard Business School. But its application has been refused by a US court.