Oracle Suit E-Mails Shed Light On Research Field's "Dirty Secret' Tech companies seen trying to use influence on independent reports.(A)

Byline: J. BONASIA

Say you hire a real estate appraiser to assess a house you want to buy. Before giving you the report, the appraiser changes it based on input he gets from the builder, the architect and the selling real estate agent.

Well, corporate buyers of costly tech wares encounter that situation all the time. They often make decisions based on reports they purchase from any of the dozen or more tech market research firms.

But the research firms -- the buyers' appraisers, so to speak -- have cozy relationships with the sellers of these wares. They're cozy because the tech vendors double as customers of the research firms.

Just how independent and unbiased are the reports published by these research firms? No one can answer that. The firms insist they report impartially on companies that are both clients and research subjects.

But there's no doubt that this situation presents an ever-present conflict of interest, say several people in this field. One, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, called this conflict the industry's "dirty little secret."

Comes To Light