Microsoft is leading the tech industry’s charge up Capitol Hill, according to statistics released Monday.
The world's largest software company spent $9 million on lobbyists to make its case in issues including taxes and trade, according to statistics compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
By contrast, Google, the leading Internet search engine, spent just $1.5 million, though that was 90 percent more than its $800,000 outlay in 2006.
Yahoo, which is trying to fend off an unwanted takeover offer from Microsoft, spent $1.6 million in 2007, a nearly 30 percent decline from its 2006 lobbying tab. Among Yahoo’s lobbyists in 2007 was Covington & Burling, which also did work for Microsoft.
Overall spending by computer and Internet companies edged down from $111 million in 2006 to $110.5 million in 2007. Among the companies putting less money into K Street, the Washington D.C. artery known as a lobbying Mecca, was Intel, whose outlays shrank by $2 million to $1.8 million.
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs also trimmed lobbying costs to $720,000 from $1.1 million.
Though the list of 2007 tech spenders was peppered with marquee names like IBM ($7.9 million) and Oracle ($5.3 million), a few smaller fish also sought a voice in Washington.
For instance, Zillow, a Seattle Internet startup that provides real estate data online and is backed by $87 million in venture capital, diverted $38,000 to lobbyists in 2007.
The National Venture Capital Association, the Arlington, Virginia, trade group that represents venture capital firms, spent $1.4 million on lobbyists in 2007, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That was an increase from the $1.2 million spent in 2006.
In 2007, the NVCA, along with leveraged buyout firms, succeeded in derailing legislation that would have taxed the profits private equity firms make as ordinary interest instead of at the lesser capital gains rate.
Companies, labor unions, governments and other entities across the board spend a record $2.8 billion on lobbying in 2007, a 7.7 percent increase over the prior year, the nonpartisan researchers reported.
The No. 1 sector in spending on lobbyists was health with $444.7 million, followed by finance, insurance and real estate.
The pharmaceuticals and health products industry, which falls within the health sector, spent $227 million on lobbyists, making it the No. 1 spender, ahead of insurance, electric utilities and computers/Internet.