We at AtAT were totally unaware of the potentially disastrous ramifications of Steve Jobs' sudden departure in the middle of a CNBC interview the other day. (If you happen to be running Internet Explorer 4.0, you can see the infamous moment yourself, in NetShow format.) According to an Apple Recon article (the angriest we've ever seen), CNBC is "piped into every trading room and back office area on Wall Street," and therefore Steve was being hideously irresponsible to the stockholders when he pulled his little stunt. He gave the impression to thousands of buyers, sellers, and recommenders that 1) Apple is currently being run by an immature brat, and 2) Apple has no chance of finding a permanent CEO because no one wants to work with an immature brat. That kind of debacle could have put Apple's stock through the floor, on the very day of the most positive financial news coming from Apple in a long time.

So was he not thinking, or did he just not care? After all, he's only got one share of AAPL, so it's not like he had a lot to lose. We're guessing he just didn't think-- after all, he wants to save the company to appease his own ego, and driving down the stock price is no way to do that. Luckily, Wall Street apparently has a thicker skin than Recon seems to think, since the stock price is still up; but the point is simply that Steve took a huge risk, and it was totally unnecessary because he had nothing to gain.

Given that perspective, we're slightly less likely to shrug the whole thing off with a shake of the head, a bemused smile, and a "That darn Steve!" look on our face. Nobody can get away with pulling a stunt like that on Wall Street. At least, not unless they have Mentos. Ahhhh... The Freshmaker!®

Seems to us that Microsoft may be getting just a wee bit nervous about Tuesday's contempt hearing. After weeks of public statements and court filings that could only be charitably described as outwardly hostile and disrespectful of both Judge Jackson and the Department of Justice, a Reuters story today has Chief Operating Officer Robert Herbold apologizing for his company's rhetoric.

Herbold says he is "sorry" for any company statements that "suggest [they] do anything but respect [the judge and the DoJ]." And it's no wonder-- when you stand to lose a million dollars a day, impertinence seems like a poor strategy. Still, Herbold makes it clear that Microsoft is not changing its stand on the issues-- just the way they'll present their side of the story.

I guess when we see what happens in four days at the hearing, we'll know if the apology was too little, too late.

And Microsoft isn't the only industry giant worried about being taken down a notch. Remember the bitter fight between Intel and Digital? "Previously, on BigTech Law:" Digital sued Intel for patent infringement, claiming that Intel's forthcoming Merced chip incorporated proprietary technology stolen from the design of Digital's Alpha processor. So Intel did what any red-blooded technological megacompany would do in such a situation-- they countersued Digital, for roughly the same types of infringements. But just like in a Shakespearean comedy, these little tiffs always end with a wedding of sorts: in late October, a settlement was reached in which Intel agreed to buy all of Digital's semiconductor manufacturing plants, which effectively transformed the Alpha from a competitive chip into an irrelevant one-- at least from Intel's standpoint.

But in today's episode, there's a kink in this diabolical plan. According to the L.A. Times, the Federal Trade Commission has found "serious antitrust problems" with Intel's plan to buy Digital's plants, and may not allow the deal to go through. Basically, with the Alpha no longer really competing with the Pentium, those dancing clean-room engineers are the only game in town for certain applications, like running Windows NT. Yes, Intel's agreed to build Alphas for seven more years, but to us that sounds like if Apple agreed to get all its Macs built by Compaq, which they would then sell against Compaq's own systems-- interesting, certainly, but not really particularly competitive. The FTC is expected to finish its investigation later this year.

My, oh, my... Microsoft and Intel both facing antitrust difficulties at the same time. Sure makes for a fun week, doesn't it?