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In the 1990s, while Microsoft fought antitrust charges, Larry Ellison hired private investigators to dig through the trash of groups defending Microsoft, exposing they were secretly funded by the company. Ellison called it a public service.
In the 1990s, while Microsoft fought antitrust charges, Larry Ellison hired private investigators to dig through the trash of groups defending Microsoft, exposing they were secretly funded by the company. Ellison called it a public service.
Oracle versus Microsoft. Have you heard this story? No. Microsoft, if you remember in the '90s, was doing antitrust cases. He was being accused of a monopoly, monopolistic behaviors. This really was a problem for Microsoft. It couldn't acquire companies, they couldn't release a competitor and kind of use their distribution to win. While it's in this situation, the Independent Institute, the National Taxpayers Union, they're coming out in support of Microsoft here. And Larry Ellison from Oracle's like, nah, no way. Hires these private investigators to go dumpster diving, and so they're digging through the trash of these independent organizations, finding links where they got paid by Microsoft, and they get caught. But they're also caught that Microsoft funded these organizations. And so they go to Larry Ellison, he's like, look, I had nothing to do with this. I wasn't made aware of it till the end, and I agree this was a bit unsavory. But he goes, corporate espionage? This is a public service. We're doing our civic duty here. We are taking hidden information about how Microsoft is funding these supposed independent orgs, and we are making it public. We're doing God's work out here.
