Google Cracking Under Viacom Pressure?

Friday, July 13th, 2007 by Andy Beal

Google Cracking Under Viacom Pressure?

It’s interesting to follow the Viacom lawsuit against Google. While Google’s faced many legal challenges before, it appears Viacom’s is the one that is troubling the search engine. It’s somewhat out of character to see Google CEO Eric Schmidt talk ugly about a company that is suing them – Google tends to comment via legal counsel – and it suggests the suit is a worry to him.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, speaking with reporters at a hotel bar at the 25th annual Allen & Co. moguls meeting, said litigation was the foundation of the company that owns the MTV Networks, Paramount movies studio and video game developer Harmonix.
“Viacom is a company built from lawsuits, look at their history,” Schmidt said on early Friday.
“Look who they hired as CEO, Philippe Dauman, who was the general counsel for Viacom for 20 years,” he added.

It’s not surprising that Google’s concerned about Viacom – it’s a $1 billion law suit after all – but it’s still strange to see Google launch a character attack in an effort to undermine the cable company’s image.

What do you think? Is Google starting to crack?

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3 comments on “Google Cracking Under Viacom Pressure?”

Steven Bradley Says:

July 13th, 2007 at 1:20 pm

Definitely our of character for Google. Maybe it’s just a case of being tired of all the lawsuits. I can’t remember the last day I didn’t come across someone new trying to sue them.

Then again, maybe this suit has more merit than some of the others.
Headlines of Note for July 13, 2007 Says:

July 13th, 2007 at 5:34 pm

[...] It appears that the Google CEO surprised a group of reporters by joining them on the patio for a little chit-chat at the Allen & Company conference last night. Eric Schmidt, who is no stranger to the press, didn’t call a press conference or make any official announcements. He just showed up and started talking. A lot of what he had to say revolved around the upcoming lawsuit brought against his company by Viacom, which claims that Google-owned YouTube is a hotbed of illegal content. He did a lot of smack-talking and said that Viacom was a company built by lawsuits. He also expressed his confidence in Google’s anti-piracy practices and their ability to prevail in the suit. But I agree with Andy Beal @ Marketing Pilgrim – it sounds like the nervous banter of a man who’s not quite as confident as he lets on. [...]
Brian Says:

July 13th, 2007 at 8:56 pm

While technology may propel them to the top, business savvy will keep them there.

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