Who will represent the interests of the public as Google and Microsoft (and others) scoop up large chunks of the digital eco-system? Here’s an excerpt from Legal Times [“Microsoft Lawyers Map out the Bid for Yahoo.” Feb. 11, 2008. reg. required] on the former federal antitrust officials working for Google and Microsoft:
“Google does have a team of veterans representing its interests in the Yahoo bid. David Gelfand, a Washington antitrust partner at Cleary Gottlieb, and Susan Creighton, Washington antitrust co-chair at Wilson Sonsini, both helped Google get its merger with DoubleClick past federal regulators at the Federal Trade Commission last year. And Creighton was director of the Bureau of Competition at the FTC before joining Wilson Sonsini in 2006.
Microsoft, too, has a connected advocate in [Charles] Rule. When he goes to the Justice Department, he won’t need introductions. Rule worked with Thomas Barnett, the head of the Antitrust Division, while the two were partners at Covington & Burling. Rule has also worked with Barnett’s deputies. David Meyer, now deputy assistant attorney general for civil enforcement, served as Rule’s special assistant in the Antitrust Division in the late ’80s and then worked with him at Covington. (Skadden partners Michael Weiner in New York and James Venit in Brussels, are representing Yahoo on antitrust matters.)”
