"Google is going to spend an awful lot of time in the antitrust spotlight -- justified or not -- over the next few years, and the company better get used to it," says technology blog Techdirt.
So far, stellar performances haven't exactly been delivered by Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) executives to the Federal Trade Commission's pair of recent antitrust inquiries.
"From my perspective, I don't think Google sees Apple as a primary competitor," Google CEO Eric Schmidt told reporters on Thursday, ahead of the company's annual shareholder meeting. Schmidt is one of two executives who serve on the boards Google and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson is the other. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore serves on the board of Apple and as a senior advisor to Google.
In areas of competition between the two companies, Schmidt say he recuses himself from discussions, adding that he typically recuses himself from Apple board discussions related to the iPhone.
Since Schmidt's comments, tech bloggers have been only too happy to point out the many areas they believe the companies compete head to head, including software for word processing and e-mail.
Of the inquiry into the proposed settlement between Google's Book Search Service and book publishers and authors, Schmidt reiterated the company's position that it was doing "something good" by making the works available to the public.
The last time Google came up against the federal government, it didn't exactly come out on top -- perhaps due to efforts on behalf of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), a company that knows very well the damage done when the public believes yours is an illegal monopoly.
Microsoft seems to have learned quite a bit since it was the DOJ's favorite punching bag. As detailed recently in a lengthy Wired article, Microsoft hired advertising consultant Michael Kassan, founder of Media Link LLC, to rally the advertising industry to lobby against Google's proposed deal with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) last year. At the eleventh hour, the U.S. Department of Justice indicated it would fight the proposed search ad partnership, and Google called it off.
"The last thing the 'do no evil' company wants is a rehash of Microsoft's situation in the 1990s," points out Fortune.
Click here to see how Google apparently plans to make its case and how at least one group views the proposed PR campaign. - Mary Kathleen Flynn
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