Shareholder activists employ a number of techniques, ranging from friendly negotiations to all-out proxy fights, to cause change at public companies. Hedge fund manager Don Netter seems to prefer public embarrassment.

The head of Stamford, Connecticut ­based Dolphin has been waging a campaign for nine months against database company InfoUSA and its CEO, Vinod Gupta, alleging the misuse of corporate funds for everything from pleasure cruises and private jets to a skybox at the University of Nebraska's football stadium. Netter's weapon of choice: a slew of internal company documents that a Delaware court ordered released to him in January. Last month the fund manager posted the material -- much of it unflattering to Gupta and InfoUSA -- on a Web site, IUSAccountability.com.

Among the documents is the captain's log of the American Princess, an 80-foot yacht once owned by Gupta and now leased to the Omaha, Nebraska, company. "Weighed anchor, smooth run to Normans Island. Great snorkeling at the caves, dinner and dancing at the Willy T's," reads one passage, describing time spent in the British Virgin Islands and visiting a local nightspot.

Dolphin owns 3.6 percent of InfoUSA and is the company's fifth-biggest shareholder. In a September letter to InfoUSA directors, which is among the documents posted on Netter's site, Gupta dismisses Dolphin as jealous of his success and trying to make a quick buck at the company's expense. "A lot of these hedge funds and investment managers have never run a business," the letter states. "The only thing they know is how to break up a company, sell it, lay off the employees, take their money and go home."

Gupta, 59, who declines comment, won a critical battle against Dolphin at the company's May 26 annual meeting, where a slim 50.7 percent majority of the shareholders who cast votes rejected the hedge fund's plan to replace Gupta and two other directors. (A company spokesman says InfoUSA's board has "a proven track record and the skills and experience needed for success.") But the campaign may not be over. Although the spokesman calls the vote a victory for InfoUSA, Netter, 44, sees the close outcome differently: "We believe at the end of the day as it relates to IUSA, the unaffiliated shareholders have sent a resounding message that change is required at the company."