A senior Googling The company’s president once compared the company’s search advertising business to selling drugs, calling it “one of the best business models the world has ever created” as the company can “ignore” users and focus on generating revenue from advertising.
Michael Roszakvice president for finance at Google from Alphabet Incwrote the notes during a training Google offered on communication in July 2017.
“Search advertising is one of the best business models the world has ever created,” Roszak wrote, adding that there were only “illegal businesses (cigarettes or drugs) that could match this economy.”
Google’s business can effectively “ignore one of the fundamental laws of economics,” Roszak wrote, supply and demand. This allowed the company to “ignore the demand side of the equation (users and searches) and focus solely on the supply side of advertisers.”
Because Google “made smart marketing and distribution investments to get our product everywhere,” Roszak wrote, “we could essentially tear the economics textbook in half.”
The document was used as evidence in the Department of Justice antitrust case v. Google, challenging a series of contracts under which Google pays web browsers and smartphone markets to be the default search engine. The government is trying to prove that Google engaged in anti-competitive tactics to maintain its dominant position. Google denies the allegations.
Roszak testified at the Justice Department trial last week, but the government removed public access to emails, charts and internal presentations from the Internet after Google protested. The agency started re-posting evidence on Wednesday after Judge Amit Mehta compromised to set a procedure for posting them. Roszak’s notes were not made public until late Thursday.
The notes were taken for a communications course, Roszak said last week, although he could not recall whether he had given a presentation on the subject. Roszak said he never sent the document to anyone else at Google.
“This entire document is full of exaggerations and exaggerations because there was no business purpose attached to it. It was part of the presentation course and trying out some of the tips they offered there,” Roszak said, adding that he “said things I don’t believe as part of the presentation in this course.”
Google’s lawyers have repeatedly objected to the document’s use in court, arguing that it was not a business record. Mehta agreed to hear Roszak’s testimony about the exhibit in closed session.
A Google spokesperson said the statements do not reflect the company’s views, noting that they were prepared for a public speaking course in which the instructions were to say something hyperbolic and eye-catching. The witness stated that he did not believe the statements were true, the spokesperson said.
“He was cosplaying Gordon Gekko,” said Google lawyer Edward Bennett, referring to the infamous character from the 1987 film Wall Street and comparing it to a “skit” that Roszak had to deliver during a training session.
The battle over the document spread more widely in the case in which the Justice Department removed all evidence it had previously made public.
Mehta ruled that the exhibit should be allowed, expressing frustration that Google had “got him in trouble” by insisting that the testimony that would have provided context be kept behind closed doors.
“There’s nothing confidential in this,” he said. “I understand it’s somewhat embarrassing for the witness.”
“Here you have someone who is a finance director, who, even though in a training session, has made the decision to give a fake presentation,” Mehta said. “These are not statements that would fall outside his wheelhouse.”
The next day, Google’s lawyers attempted to redact part of the document, but Mehta denied their request and said he would unseat the portion of Roszak’s testimony related to it.
Michael Roszakvice president for finance at Google from Alphabet Incwrote the notes during a training Google offered on communication in July 2017.
“Search advertising is one of the best business models the world has ever created,” Roszak wrote, adding that there were only “illegal businesses (cigarettes or drugs) that could match this economy.”
Google’s business can effectively “ignore one of the fundamental laws of economics,” Roszak wrote, supply and demand. This allowed the company to “ignore the demand side of the equation (users and searches) and focus solely on the supply side of advertisers.”
Because Google “made smart marketing and distribution investments to get our product everywhere,” Roszak wrote, “we could essentially tear the economics textbook in half.”
The document was used as evidence in the Department of Justice antitrust case v. Google, challenging a series of contracts under which Google pays web browsers and smartphone markets to be the default search engine. The government is trying to prove that Google engaged in anti-competitive tactics to maintain its dominant position. Google denies the allegations.
Roszak testified at the Justice Department trial last week, but the government removed public access to emails, charts and internal presentations from the Internet after Google protested. The agency started re-posting evidence on Wednesday after Judge Amit Mehta compromised to set a procedure for posting them. Roszak’s notes were not made public until late Thursday.
The notes were taken for a communications course, Roszak said last week, although he could not recall whether he had given a presentation on the subject. Roszak said he never sent the document to anyone else at Google.
“This entire document is full of exaggerations and exaggerations because there was no business purpose attached to it. It was part of the presentation course and trying out some of the tips they offered there,” Roszak said, adding that he “said things I don’t believe as part of the presentation in this course.”
Google’s lawyers have repeatedly objected to the document’s use in court, arguing that it was not a business record. Mehta agreed to hear Roszak’s testimony about the exhibit in closed session.
A Google spokesperson said the statements do not reflect the company’s views, noting that they were prepared for a public speaking course in which the instructions were to say something hyperbolic and eye-catching. The witness stated that he did not believe the statements were true, the spokesperson said.
“He was cosplaying Gordon Gekko,” said Google lawyer Edward Bennett, referring to the infamous character from the 1987 film Wall Street and comparing it to a “skit” that Roszak had to deliver during a training session.
The battle over the document spread more widely in the case in which the Justice Department removed all evidence it had previously made public.
Mehta ruled that the exhibit should be allowed, expressing frustration that Google had “got him in trouble” by insisting that the testimony that would have provided context be kept behind closed doors.
“There’s nothing confidential in this,” he said. “I understand it’s somewhat embarrassing for the witness.”
“Here you have someone who is a finance director, who, even though in a training session, has made the decision to give a fake presentation,” Mehta said. “These are not statements that would fall outside his wheelhouse.”
The next day, Google’s lawyers attempted to redact part of the document, but Mehta denied their request and said he would unseat the portion of Roszak’s testimony related to it.
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