Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1999/04/30/amd_spams_mike_magee/

AMD spams Mike Magee

Journalists up in arms at PR outrage

By Anna Llypsis

Posted in On-Prem, 30th April 1999 15:04 GMT

A simple mistake by the PR company which represents AMD in Europe has led to enraged journalists wondering why a press release was issued by Mike Magee. The press release, which was something to do with home networking, was sent to several hundred journalists in the UK and Europe but with the email address of The Register's Mike Magee in the FROM field. Peter Kirwan, until recently the editor of influential British computing newspaper Computing emailed Magee, saying: "Mike, I didn't realise you'd gone into PR." And Richard Barry, online editor of ZD Net UK, said: "You sent me a mail from AMD." Other journalists responded in a similar vein. When contacted, Pierre Braude Associates offered no apology, initially. It said it was a mistake in the Compuserve software it uses. Later on in the day, a representative for PBA said: "We apologise for this. It was a fluke and we don't know how it happened. We are changing our provider straight away." ®