According to Intentia, its investigation revealed evidence of "unauthorised entry" into its computer network, via an IP-address belonging to Reuters.
The company claims that the entry took place 12:51 pm on 24th October, "prior to the publication of the interim report for the third quarter of 2002", and that Reuters released the first news flash giving information on the report at 12:57, "without prior confirmation" from Intentia.
Intentia said in a statement: "We question the methods used by Reuters, and our judgement is that we cannot rule out the possibility of illegal actions. As a consequence we will file criminal charges regarding the incident."
It is noted that Reuters published the report when it was already on Intentia's web site, but the IT company alleges that the particular page was not available through normal channels on the site.
Reuters has rejected Intentia's allegations as "of no substance."
At the same time, Finnish energy company Fortum Oyj is also investigating an incident involving an earnings report that allegedly appeared on Reuters web site before its scheduled publication.