By Will Sturgeon, 29 June 2000 13:30
NEWS Oracle has admitted using a detective agency to investigate the operations of rival Microsoft. Investigative Group International (IGI) were employed over a year long period to leak information regarding Microsoft's political activities to the media and investigate allies of the software giant - claiming such allies were a front for raising widespread objections to the US Department of Jutice anti-trust case. Larry Ellison, chief executive of Oracle, said: "It is absolutely true that we set out to expose Microsoft's covert activities. If Microsoft is creating front organisations, I feel very good about bringing that information to the public." Oracle said it had successfully proven a newspaper advertisement containing 240 academic signatures opposing the anti-trust measures had actually been paid for by Microsoft. Similar accusations were levelled at the National Taxpayers Union, which Oracle claimed, was also a front funded by Microsoft. A statement from Oracle said: "Left undisclosed, these Microsoft front groups could have improperly influenced the outcome of one of the most important anti-trust cases in US history." Mark Murray, spokesman for Microsoft, said: "The only thing more disturbing than Oracle's behaviour is their ongoing attempt to justify these actions."
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