WASHINGTON – Those mysterious private eyes who allegedly bribed janitors for the trash thrown out by Microsoft allies turned out to be financed by the Redmond software giant's most bitter enemy.
That's right: It was Oracle Corp.
The detective firm, Investigative Group International, used questionable tactics to obtain potentially damaging documents from trade associations, conservative groups, and other organizations that are funded in part by Microsoft and have opposed the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit.
Oracle admitted late Tuesday that it had hired IGI to expose links to the nonprofit groups.
"Left undisclosed, these Microsoft front groups could have improperly influenced the outcome of one of the most important antitrust cases in U.S. history," the company said.
The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times also reported Oracle's involvement in Wednesday's editions.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is an outspoken fan of the Justice Department's lawsuit and has called for a three-way breakup of the Redmond, Washington software firm. Before and during the antitrust trial, Oracle provided documents to government lawyers that aided them in their investigation.
A private investigator who official records say worked for IGI has been linked to attempts to pay janitors for the trash of the Association for Competitive Technology, as first reported by Wired News.
ACT President Jonathan Zuck said he wanted a public apology from Oracle.
"They are revealed to be what they have been all along – an enormously successful firm willing to use politics and deceit to win the war against Microsoft at any cost," Zuck said.
Oracle's statement did not explicitly acknowledge its involvement with the ACT cash-for-trash episode, instead merely saying "Microsoft also funded the Association of Competitive Technology for the same exact purpose (of being a front group)." ACT receives money from Microsoft, but has taken positions – such as opposing government intervention in the AOL-Time Warner merger – that are not consistently pro-Microsoft.
Oracle did, however, acknowledge it had hired IGI to target a libertarian and a conservative group.
"Oracle Corporation hired Investigation Group International (IGI) to examine the activities of the Independent Institute and the National Taxpayers Union. As a result, 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," the statement said.
The free-market Independent Institute in Oakland, California has seen confidential documents obtained by computer companies and leaked to The New York Times for an article that was critical of the Redmond, Washington, software giant. The newspaper identified the source of the leak only as a Microsoft rival.
"We thought we were getting involved in a high-level debate over economic theory," said David Theroux, president of the institute. "It's pretty pathetic if (Oracle's involvement) is true."
Oracle refused to answer questions, but the company funds the Progress and Freedom Foundation, which has called for a breakup of Microsoft.
Oracle has already benefited from the Justice Department's antitrust suit.
Last November, the day of U.S. District Judge Thomas Jackson's preliminary ruling against Microsoft, Oracle's stock jumped about four percent.
In April, after Jackson ruled that Microsoft had violated antitrust laws, Ellison's personal net worth soared to $50 billion, making him temporarily the richest man in the world.
In Wednesday morning trading, Oracle shares were at 82-1/2, far above its 52-week low of 17-5/16.
Ellison has said he would like to see Microsoft split into three separate firms, each with complete rights to all company products. He once even went so far as to compare Microsoft's let-us-innovate defense to Nazi propaganda.
On June 6, a woman identifying herself as Blanca Lopez offered janitors $700 cash for documents in ACT's trash, according to a report from P&R Cleaning Services Inc. to the building's owner.
Lopez refused to comment to Wired News.
Lopez offered money on two different evenings, and gained access to the building using a cardkey from Robert M. Walters, who has been a private investigator for IGI.
Walters rented an office in the same executive suite as ACT on behalf of "Upstream Technologies," which appears to be a front company. The company was incorporated in March in Delaware, which does not require disclosure of corporate officers until one year later.
