The lawsuit alleges that Microsoft harmed Be through a series of
illegal deals with PC makers which prohibited them from selling PCs
with multiple pre-installed operating systems.
Be tried offering its operating system as a compliment to
Windows. In early 1998, it struck a deal with Hitachi, the computer
maker agreeing to pre-install Be’s operating system alongside
Windows. However, Microsoft’s licence for Windows refused to allow
Hitachi to offer Be’s desktop icon and Microsoft allegedly sent two
officers to Hitachi to express their “anger” over its relationship
with Be.
Hitachi eventually sold a line of computers with the Be system
installed. However, apparently due to Microsoft's conditions, they
were not configured to allow the user to boot the Be system and
nothing in the computer’s start-up sequence indicated that Be
existed on the hard drive as an alternative to Windows. The user
was required to boot the Be system from a floppy disk.
Consequently, few consumers used Be.
The company has not yet specified how much it is seeking in
damages, although in its statement it claims that it was once
valued at over $1 billion.
