But the battle was just beginning. On June 23, 1995, the Justice Department had received a letter from Netscape's outside counsel, Gary L. Reback, sent two days after a Netscape-Microsoft meeting. The letter, which recounted verbal exchanges and events that took place at the meeting, pointed toward violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act. At first, the Justice Department did not grasp the significance of the meeting. But it would prove to be the starting point in the narrative of the government's case.

According to Reback's letter, Microsoft had made Netscape an all-or-nothing offer: Microsoft would not give Netscape the technology plumbing in Windows unless the software giant received an equity interest in Netscape, a seat on Netscape's Board of Directors, and otherwise controlled Netscape's ability to compete against Microsoft. The Netscape-Microsoft meeting and Reback's letter led to the most watched antitrust trial of the century, and the first real test of the century-old doctrine of antitrust in the information age.

In a trial that captured the world's attention like no other legal battle in recent corporate history...