Pate warns about Microsoft challenge.

Byline: Jaret Seiberg in Washington

U.S. Assistant Attorney General R. Hewitt Pate is warning that a coalition of high-tech companies could imperil scores of mergers if the group successfully overturns the government's antitrust settlement with Microsoft Corp.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association has filed a so-called Tunney Act challenge to the Department of Justice's controversial settlement with Microsoft in 2001. It contends that a federal judge erred when she ruled the deal was in the public's interest and wants the court to let it intervene in the case.

The dispute is scheduled for argument in November before the U.S. Court of …