*********** Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 21:57:26 -0700 From: Jennifer Glass <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: Oracle Corporation To: Declan McCullagh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [personal note snipped --Declan] Statement of the Oracle Corporation June 27, 2000 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. Microsoft also funded the Association of Competitive Technology for the same exact purpose. Left undisclosed, these Microsoft front groups could have improperly influenced the outcome of one of the most important antitrust cases in U.S. history. When Oracle hired IGI to investigate Microsoft's numerous front organizations, we didn't specify how IGI should go about gathering information. We did however insist that whatever methods IGI employed, those methods must be legal. IGI repeatedly assured us that all their activities were in fact 100% legal. Jennifer ******************************************************************************* Jennifer Glass Vice President, Corporate Public Relations Oracle Worldwide Marketing [EMAIL PROTECTED] Declan McCullagh wrote: > I'm writing a story about Oracle's hiring of IGI to acquire the trash from > pro-Microsoft trade associations, and would like to get a response from > you. My earlier article on the topic: > http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37022,00.html
