Google undaunted by loss of Facebook to rival
Unfazed by rival Microsoft winning a race to partner with online phenomenon Facebook, Google wooed analysts Wednesday with plans to wring even more riches from the Internet.
Microsoft will take a $240 million stake in wildly popular social-networking website Facebook as part of an expansion of a strategic alliance of the two firms.
Microsoft will become the exclusive third-party advertising partner for Facebook, and will begin to sell advertising for Facebook internationally in addition to the United States.
Executives at Google, which vied with Microsoft for nearly a year for a business tie-up with Facebook, were in the midst of an annual briefing day for analysts when the deal was announced.
"There are plenty of companies using the notion of social community," Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said during the gathering at the Internet giant's headquarters in Mountain View, California.
"It is pretty obvious people will be members of multiple networks; which is why our world won't collapse with any one network."
Schmidt declined to discuss Microsoft's deal with Facebook or rampant rumors about Google planning to release an advertising-supported mobile "G-phone".
"I'm using the iPhone," quipped Schmidt, who is on the board of iPhone-maker Apple Inc.
Schmidt confirmed that Google is likely to bid for the 700 megahertz broadcast spectrum to be auctioned off by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
"It is perfectly possible the best strategy will be to bid with one or several partners," said the company's CEO.
Schmidt, Google co-founder Serge Brin at his side, vowed that Google wouldn't buy a broadcast spectrum, build a telephone network and take to selling an array of mobile devices.
"We are not planning on getting into the telephony business," Schmidt said.
"The auction is a tactic to an outcome and the outcome is end user choice."
Google promised the FCC it will bid at least a minimum bid of $4.65 billion if rules of the spectrum sale guarantee open access to Internet firms.
Schmidt said Google has no plans for a stock split, which would double the number of shares but halve the price.
"We'd rather have investors who do the arithmetic than those who are buying just on price," Brin said of Google stock, which was $675.30 a share in after-hours trading.
Schmidt is optimistic that US and European Union regulators will clear Google's purchase of online ad-targeting firm DoubleClick, which it made a deal to buy after winning a bidding war against Microsoft.
Google showcased young talent for analysts by having product team leaders wearing T-shirts or sweatshirts with their college names demonstrate slick software tools.
"Googler" Paul McDonald had the room full of analysts stand, place hands over hearts and join him in a "Pledge of Allegiance to the Web".
Analysts left the "Googleplex" saying that while they heard nothing surprising they expected Google to continue cashing in on its expertise in matching advertising to online search queries.
AFP
(China Daily 10/26/2007 page16)
