“Google Inc.’s reluctance to provide a top executive for testimony to a Senate panel probing its market power has prompted threats of subpoenas for Chief Executive Officer Larry Page and Chairman Eric Schmidt,” Sara Forden reports for Bloomberg.
“In a letter dated June 10, the Democratic chairman and leading Republican on the antitrust subcommittee asked Google to provide one of the company’s two senior executives before Congress’s August recess,” Forden reports. “The letter urged a resolution ‘by agreement’ to avoid ‘more formal procedures,’ according to a copy of the letter obtained by Bloomberg News.”
“The threat of subpoenas is one of the ways the committee is pressuring Mountain View, California-based Google to send Page or Schmidt, according to two people familiar with negotiations between the panel and the company, “Forden reports. “Google has offered to have Chief Legal Officer David Drummond appear at the hearing, according to the letter.”
Forden reports, “The subcommittee would ‘strongly prefer’ Page or Schmidt at the proceeding, ‘which will address fundamental questions of business operations rather than merely legal issues,’ U.S. senators Herb Kohl and Mike Lee wrote. Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, and Lee, of Utah, is the panel’s ranking Republican.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
FTC to serve Google with subpoenas in far-reaching antitrust probe – June 23, 2011
What secrets will Google’s mole in chief cough up? That he stole the entire Android blueprint from Apple? That’s an abuse of a Mole’s insider position – not to steal trade secrets while in a privileged position within a company.
I think Schmidt’s rebuttal might be to shove Larry under the bus.
Fan, meet manure.
When Schmidt hits the fan…
Up Schmidt Creek w/out a paddle..
Smells like Schmidt to me
Not exactly a great way to enhance your relationship w/ congress..
What fundamental questions of business operations remain unanswered for Google? Simply copying all of Apple’s ideas is not a complicated strategy.
Good luck getting Larry to show. He is brilliant but a bit of a recluse. He dosen’t like talking to a lot of people. He was at the last quarterly financials meeting all of 5 minutes.
He’s just not that kind of CEO