Why Tech Firms Find Allies Late in Washington

Facebook is the latest Silicon Valley behemoth to conclude that it is good business to have friends in Washington.

Technology companies tend to ignore Washington until they can't, most famously demonstrated by Microsoft Corp., which belatedly staffed up its operations in the capital after the Justice Department tried to break it up in the late 1990s. Last year, the company spent $6.9 million on lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Unlike other industries -- such as pharmaceuticals and telecommunications -- high-tech companies don't operate in highly-regulated businesses and generally don't easily see the need to amass large regulatory-focused or political operations in Washington. But they often do share many of the same policy concerns, among them limits on foreign-worker visas and changes to U.S. patent laws. To address those issues, they generally turn to industry trade groups such as TechNet and the Computer and Communications Industry Association.