Software maker, Oracle has acknowledged that it hired a detective
agency to investigate allies of Microsoft in an effort to expose
its rival's "underhanded activities", reported the Wall Street
Journal recently.
According to the article, the company had done so with the
intention of disclosing internal documents to the media about
Microsoft's political activities, to fight the Justice Department's
"landmark antitrust case" against the Bill Gates-founded software
giant.
In a statement, Oracle confirmed its yearlong use of detective
firm, Investigative Group International - which reportedly used
tactics such as offering to buy the office trash of one Microsoft
ally to discover information.
"As a result, Oracle discovered that both the Independent
Institute (of Oakland, California) and the National Taxpayers Union
(of Arlington, Virginia) 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
favour of Microsoft during its antitrust trial," read the
statement.
However, Oracle denied any knowledge of illegal activities by
IGI, and the agency said it abided strictly by the law, despite the
fact that its investigator who led the Microsoft project resigned
last week, noted the article.
Microsoft spokesman Vivek Varma commented, "This is further
evidence that our competitors have conducted an orchestrated PR and
lobbying campaign to generate government intervention into a market
place that is working for consumers. This is a pretty sad
commentary to resort to these sorts of actions. It's a bad day for
the industry."
The Wall Street Journal also said that Oracle had hired a PR
firm to distribute damaging information about Microsoft's allies to
media outlets, and confirmed that the company, currently number two
software maker behind Microsoft, was among those businesses that
provided documents to the Justice Department during its antitrust
investigation of Microsoft.