Google Mulling Who Testifies Before Senate
Google Inc. (GOOG) is still deliberating over which executive to send to a U.S. Senate panel probing its market power, Chairman Eric Schmidt said.
“We have not made a decision yet,” Schmidt said yesterday at a media-industry conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. “It’s a legal question of who is best to represent the company. We’ll make a decision soon.”
The antitrust subcommittee has asked Google to provide a top executive who could deliver testimony, and has threatened to issue subpoenas to compel Schmidt or Chief Executive Officer Larry Page to attend.
The Senate probe reflects a groundswell of scrutiny of Google’s competitive position. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is probing the business, as is the European Union. Separately, the antitrust division of the Department of Justice is reviewing Google’s $400 million purchase of the Internet-advertising company Admeld Inc.
In a letter dated June 10, the Democratic chairman and leading Republican on the Senate antitrust subcommittee asked Google to provide one of the company’s two senior executives before Congress’s August recess. The letter urged an agreement, to avoid “more formal procedures,” according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg News.
Beyond ‘Legal Issues’
Google offered to have Chief Legal Officer David Drummond appear at the hearing, according to the letter.
The subcommittee would “strongly prefer” Page or Schmidt at the proceeding, “which will address fundamental questions of business operations rather than merely legal issues,” according to the letter.
The FTC is preparing for its probe by asking technology companies to gather information about Google, three people familiar with the matter said in April. In his remarks yesterday, Schmidt referred to previous FTC investigations, which include the review of its AdMob acquisition and probes into the privacy implications of its Street View and Google Buzz products.
“They know us pretty well,” Schmidt said.
Google’s chairman recently met with European Union officials during a trip to Brussels, he said yesterday. That body is still reviewing Google’s answers to a round of questioning, Schmidt said. European investigators have contacted 800 companies, he said.
Schmidt said he doesn’t know how long the Justice Department’s review of its Admeld acquisition could take.
Twitter, Hulu
He also discussed other topics, such as a failed agreement with Twitter Inc. and Google’s new social-networking site Google+. Google couldn’t reach a search accord with Twitter after “lengthy” talks, Schmidt said. Google+, meanwhile, has struggled with a flood of users. Millions of invited users were blocked by the service, he said.
Schmidt declined to comment on whether Google is interested in buying Hulu LLC, the video-streaming service. Bankers for Hulu have met with Google, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) as the company explores a sale, people familiar with the process said last week.
“We are not able to answer M&A questions,” Schmidt said. “But it’s widely reported that Hulu is being discussed.”
He said acquiring a premium-content service like Hulu “is not the highest priority” for Google now because its own YouTube video site is doing well with revenue generation and developing original content.
Hulu’s owners include Walt Disney Co. (DIS), News Corp. and Comcast Corp.’s NBC Universal. Disney CEO Robert Iger said this week that Hulu’s owners are “committed to selling.”
Google fell $18.19, or 3.3 percent, to $528.41 at 11:28 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares had declined 8 percent this year before today.
To contact the reporters on this story: Joseph Galante in San Francisco at jgalante3@bloomberg.net; Brett Pulley in New York at bpulley@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
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