Netscape `approached Microsoft'

JIM CLARK, co-founder and then chairman of Netscape Communications, asked Microsoft to consider taking a stake in the company in December 1994, Microsoft's lawyer said yesterday on the third day of the trial where Microsoft is defending itself against antitrust charges.

US government lawyers have claimed that in June 1995 Microsoft offered to take a stake in Netscape and proposed dividing the market for Internet browsers between them. Netscape's lawyer argued that the 1994 request was made in a moment of weakness, and chairman Jim Barksdale said it was not discussed at the June 1995 meeting.