“Tim Cook recently traveled to an unfamiliar destination for an Apple Inc. chief executive officer: The U.S. Capitol,” Tim Higgins, David McLaughlin and Todd Shields report for Bloomberg. “During the trip last month, Cook posed for a photo with Senator Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican taking over the Senate Finance Committee this year. It was one of the meetings Cook had while in town, which also included a stop at Apple’s store in the Georgetown area.”
“Apple, which has come under increasing scrutiny as the world’s most valuable company, is becoming more of a regular around Washington,” Higgins, McLaughlin and Shields report. “While co-founder Steve Jobs shunned the nation’s capital, Apple lobbied the White House, Congress and 13 departments and agencies from the Food and Drug Administration to the Federal Trade Commission in 2014 through the third quarter, according to OpenSecrets.org. In 2009, Apple lobbied only Congress and six agencies.”
“Apple’s spending in Washington remains small compared with other technology companies. Microsoft Corp., which faced an antitrust trial in the late 1990s, spent $6 million last year through the third quarter in Washington, according to OpenSecrets.org, a website that tracks spending. Google Inc. is the biggest technology spender after grappling with its own antitrust scrutiny, with $13.7 million in U.S. lobbying costs in 2014 through the end of September. In that same period, Apple spent $2.9 million,” Higgins, McLaughlin and Shields report. “Apple’s expenditures on Washington lobbying last year were on pace to top 2013’s record $3.4 million, which was already twice as much as what the company spent five years ago, according to OpenSecrets.org.”
Much more in the full article here.