By Brody Mullins and Ted Mann
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (June 13, 2019).
WASHINGTON -- Google has fired about a half-dozen of its largest
lobbying firms as part of a major overhaul of its global government
affairs and policy operations amid the prospect of greater
government scrutiny of its businesses.
In the past few months, the company has shaken up its roster of
lobbying firms, restructured its Washington policy team and lost
two senior officials who helped build its influence operation into
one of the largest in the nation's capital, according to people
familiar with Google's Washington strategy. The firms Google has
dumped make up about half of the company's more than $20 million
annual lobbying bill.
People familiar with the matter say the revamp is part of a
continuing modernization of the influence operation Google built
over the last 15 years, but it comes as Google faces a number of
government investigations into its affairs. The Wall Street Journal
reported recently that the Justice Department is gearing up to
conduct an antitrust investigation into the tech giant. Congress
and states attorneys general are also reviewing Google's practices,
while on the campaign trail, some Democratic presidential
candidates are calling for the company to be broken up.
Amid the increased scrutiny, Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., is
shuffling its ranks of lobbyists and other Washington consultants,
according to people familiar with the matter. Among the lobbyists
no longer working for the company are Charlie Black, a longtime
Republican strategist, and firms that have relationships with
senior Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, including Off
Hill Strategies LLC, which has ties to fiscally conservative
Republicans.
People familiar with Google's restructuring say the operation
that evolved as the onetime startup expanded had become outmoded
after years of rapid global growth. The company overhauled its
policy team to better reflect the global reach of its commercial
ambitions and handle potential entanglements with regulators and
lawmakers across regions and markets, these people said.
The moves are seen as part of a shake-up by Google's new head of
policy and government relations, Karan Bhatia, a former senior
trade representative in the administration of President George W.
Bush and later a top executive at General Electric Co.
Mr. Bhatia was brought in last summer to serve as Google's vice
president of policy and government relations. Over the past year,
he has been reassessing Google's influence shop, which has grown to
one of the biggest in the corporate world. Late last year, Susan
Molinari, a former Republican congresswoman, said she would step
down as the head of Google's Washington operations. The company
hasn't yet named a successor.
Mr. Bhatia shook up Google's policy department earlier this year
by asking some employees to reapply for their own jobs.
One executive leaving Google amid the shake-up is Adam
Kovacevich, who ran the firm's public-policy division. Mr.
Kovacevich was a central player in Google's efforts to shape
perceptions and rules in ways that have been favorable to the
business of the search and advertising giant.
Most prominently, Mr. Kovacevich led the company's campaign to
head off a high-profile 2012 Federal Trade Commission investigation
into whether the company used anticompetitive tactics. He also
helped launch a host of advocacy groups to promote public-policy
matters that benefited Google.
In 2006, the year before Mr. Kovacevich joined Google, the
company spent $800,000 on lobbying and had four lobbying firms on
retainer. In 2018, Google had 100 lobbyists, employed nearly 30
firms, and spent $21.7 million to lobby Washington, making it the
largest spender on lobbying among U.S. corporations, according to
public lobbying filings compiled by the nonpartisan Center for
Responsive Politics.
The company spent millions more on donations to think tanks,
political entities, universities and other third-party groups that
churned out papers, generated data and hosted policy conferences
that Google used to help shape the debate on issues such as
privacy, net neutrality and self-driving cars.
Meanwhile, Google employees helped the company become one of the
largest sources of campaign donations to the Democratic Party and
its candidates, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama,
according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In the 2018
congressional elections, Google's employee-funded PAC donated $1.9
million to political candidates in both parties, the group's
figures show.
Donations from employees made Google a top source of campaign
money for both of Mr. Obama's presidential campaigns, and the
company's employees ranked as the leading source of money for Mrs.
Clinton's 2016 presidential bid. Employees of the company donated a
total of $1.6 million to Mrs. Clinton's campaign, the center
found.
After Mr. Obama took office, Google and its Washington lobbying
team scored a string of victories. Most significantly, Mr. Obama's
FTC, which is technically an independent agency, declined to pursue
an antitrust case against Google in 2013 after a lengthy
investigation.
Google also won favorable net-neutrality rules from the Federal
Communications Commission, headed off federal privacy regulations
in Congress and secured a friendly ruling on self-driving vehicles
from highway-safety regulators, among other matters.
But in the past few years, Google has run into headwinds from
both Republicans and Democrats, while its public image took a
beating over privacy concerns and what critics say is its failure
to police content on its platform, particularly as it related to
the 2016 election.
The new structure has regional leaders covering the U.S. and
Canada, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and countries the company
views as its emerging markets.
The new arrangement also includes policy teams that will
continue to lobby governments on critical areas for the company,
including privacy and handling controversial content on its
platforms.
Write to Brody Mullins at brody.mullins@wsj.com and Ted Mann at
ted.mann@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 13, 2019 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024