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Oracle's Private Eyes Hit Microsoft Trail

Software rival admits to hiring detectives during the antitrust trial.

By Reuters   

Oracle hired Investigation Group International to look into the activities of the Independent Institute and the National Taxpayers Union, seeking to uncover links between Microsoft and the groups during Microsoft's antitrust trial, Oracle says in a statement.

"Oracle discovered that both the Independent Institute and the National Taxpayers Union were misrepresenting themselves as independent advocacy groups, when in fact their work was funded by Microsoft for the express purpose of influencing public opinion in favor of Microsoft during its antitrust trial," Oracle says in a statement obtained by Reuters.

The move by Oracle, which says in its statement that it "insisted" that IGI's tactics be legal, highlights the acrimonious and long-standing rivalry between Oracle, the world's biggest maker of database software, and Microsoft, whose Windows operating system powers more than 80 percent of the world's personal computers.

Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison has long been a bitter critic of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Microsoft's competitive tactics in the marketplace.

Oracle adds that it retained the firm to show that Microsoft supported these trade groups and other groups financially and to show that these groups were disseminating purportedly independent surveys and studies that supported Microsoft's position during its historic antitrust trial.

Bitter Rivalry

Microsoft condemned Oracle's involvement in hiring IGI.

"This is dramatic proof that Microsoft's competitors have been funding and orchestrating a massive PR and lobbying campaign in an effort to tarnish Microsoft's image and invite government intervention in an industry that has been very competitive and serving consumers very well," Microsoft spokesperson Mark Murray told Reuters.

"We think it's a very sad day and a huge embarrassment for Oracle and all its employees."

The financial ties between Microsoft and these organizations, including the Association of Competitive Technology, were previously reported by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.

Oracle has, in the past 18 months, curried favor among analysts and investors as a credible threat to Microsoft as the world moves more and more to computing power and software applications residing on powerful computer servers and accessed through a simple Internet browser.

Oracle confirmed its retention of IGI after newspaper reports said that the detective agency attempted to bribe janitors to buy trash from the Washington-based Association for Competitive Technology. IGI was unsuccessful in trying to pay two janitors $1,200 for the trash, media reports have said.

Oracle, when it hired IGI, did not "specify how IGI should go about gathering information," the Oracle statement says. "We did however insist that whatever methods IGI employed, those methods must be legal."