Schmidt to Be Busy Representing Google in D.C., Say Analysts
Former CEO Eric Schmidt will be in Washington promoting Google interests much more often now that he has become the company’s executive chairman, said several analysts. But a higher capital profile for Schmidt would be a bad idea, said a privacy advocate.
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Schmidt will spend more time in Washington increasing Google’s “level of dialogue” with federal officials to promote Google’s perspective on issues, said Lou Kerner, equity research vice president at Wedbush Securities. Schmidt will counter Google competitors who are busy portraying Google as anticompetitive, Kerner said. Soon Google will face controversies all the time like the one over its acquisition of ITA, he said. It makes sense for Schmidt to concentrate on lobbying Washington, added Clayton Moran, an analyst at the Benchmark Co., spending his time dealing with matters such as privacy and Google’s acquisitions. “They have lobbyists, but he is a great representative, and he’s very comfortable in politics,” Moran said.
Schmidt has ties to Washington. He was born in D.C., according to the McKinsey Quarterly business journal. He’s on the president’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and chairs the New America Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute in Washington. Schimdt is a frequent donor to political campaigns, according to Federal Election Commission records reported by OpenSecrets.org. He has donated $363,616 to federal candidates and political parties since 1990 -- most to Democrats, including a $100,000 contribution to the Democratic National Committee in 2000 before he went to Google.
Schmidt has said the company’s regulatory problems, such as in antitrust, result from a lack of understanding by government about what Google does, said Greg Sterling, who edits the Search Engine Land blog. Having Schmidt meet with federal and European regulators would put a human face on Google, Sterling said. But Schmidt has a mixed record in public relations, he said. Fast Company magazine characterized Schmidt as “gaffe-prone,” in an October article, and listed several “creepy” statements he made last year. On The Colbert Report, Schmidt said, “It’s true we see your searches. But we forget them after a while.” In a speech at an international radio exhibition in April, he said, “We can suggest what you should do next, what you care about. Imagine: We know where you are, we know what you like,” according to Fast Company. In an October interview on CNN’s Parker Spitzer, Schmidt suggested that people move if they didn’t like Google’s Street View filming their home. Google media representatives didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment.
"Eric Schmidt will lead Google to a political disaster if he is allowed to lead its lobbying efforts,” said Jeff Chester, director of the Center for Digital Democracy. Schmidt brought a policy advocacy ethos to the company and invested heavily in its Washington, D.C., lobbying apparatus, Chester said. Google spent $3.9 million on lobbying last year through late November, according to OpenSecrets. The company pushed Schmidt out as CEO partly because of the company’s public-relations problems on privacy, Chester said, and his departure gives the company a chance to set the industry standard for consumer privacy. “It’s an opportunity to put ‘We Won’t Be Evil’ back into the company motto,” Chester said.