|
Microsoft hits the streets
|
 |
June 12, 2000: 8:27 a.m. ET
Software maker turns to grassroots campaign, lobbying to win public approval
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Microsoft is battling again, this time in the court of public opinion.
The software maker has launched a massive lobbying and public relations campaign, the New York Times reports, in order to offset a federal court ruling that declared the company in violation of antitrust laws and called for its breakup.
 Microsoft has contributed funds to research groups with strong free-market orientation, the Times reports. Americans for Tax Reform, the Cato Institute and the National Taxpayers Union are among those that have received support from Microsoft, the newspaper said.
In addition, Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) has been the impetus behind the creation of new trade groups such as the Association for Competitive Technology and Americans for Technology Leadership, both of which back the company through Web sites and grassroots lobbying campaigns, the Times said.
Microsoft opponents, meanwhile, are putting countermeasures into place. The company's most vocal critics include former federal judge Robert H. Bork and technology competitors IBM (IBM: Research, Estimates), Oracle (ORCL: Research, Estimates), Sun Microsystems (SUNW: Research, Estimates), Novell (NOVL: Research, Estimates) and America Online (AOL: Research, Estimates).
These companies, along with other legal and business competitor opponents, reportedly spent some $11 million in 1999 on industry trade groups that painted Microsoft as a monopolistic bully. Microsoft, in waging its own war for public opinion, spent $4.6 million over the same time frame, the Times reported, citing information from the Federal Election Commission.
Microsoft also is opening its pocket book on the political front. The company, which made almost no political contributions six years ago, is now the third-largest corporate contributor, the Times points out. The company has donated $500,000 to each party's summer convention, the paper reported, and has paid out $2.2 million to both Republicans and Democrats over the last 17 months.
Among the lobbyists who have thrown their support to Microsoft are Haley Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican party and a senior adviser to Governor Bush, and Tom Downey, an adviser to Vice President Gore, the Times reported.
 In the past, Microsoft had very little political involvement, said a former Microsoft public relations consultant who was not named by the Times. "They [Microsoft] resented people from Sun and Netscape who lobbied Congress and complained to the Justice Department."
Despite the government's view of Microsoft as a tech industry bully, the American public, according to a recent Gallup poll, is overwhelmingly for the company: 95 percent of those polled had a favorable opinion of Microsoft, and 69 percent had a favorable opinion of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.
Although opinion as to whether Microsoft is a monopoly was fairly evenly split, 54 percent still favor a ruling requiring a Microsoft breakup. 
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
