Google Protests News Corp., Microsoft Ties in Texas Probe

Google says its confidential business information is at risk in the nationwide antitrust probe of the company because the Texas attorney generals office, which is leading the investigation, hired two consultants that have worked for Google adversaries.

Parent company Alphabet Inc. went to court Thursday to restrict Texass ability to disclose sensitive information to consultants who have worked for competitors and other companies such as News Corp. and Microsoft Corp. that have complained about Google to regulators.

Google specifically cited the hiring of Cristina Caffarra, an economist with consulting firm Charles River Associates who has worked for Google adversaries News Corp., Microsoft, and Russias Yandex NV, according to the court filing in Texas.

Caffarra is providing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtons office with “expert examinations, observations, opinions, consultations, analyses, reports, testimony, and other services,” according to a contract released by the state. She is working for free, according to her contract.

The arrangement, Google said in court papers, “creates a significant risk that Googles confidential business information could be inappropriately disclosed to and used by its adversaries.”

“Weve provided millions of pages of documents in response to regulatory inquiries, and were committed to cooperating,” Google said in a statement. “But this is an extraordinarily irregular arrangement and its only fair to have assurances that our confidential business information wont be shared with competitors or vocal complainants.”

The fight over the consultants comes after Paxtons office issued a civil investigative demand to Google in September seeking detailed information about the companys advertising business.

Google said in court papers its not seeking to bar disclosure of business information to any Texas consultant who has worked for a rival or complaining company, only those who are currently employed by them. Consultants who are likely to work for Google competitors should not be able to work for them during the states investigation and one year afterward, Google said.

The company is also unhappy with Paxtons hiring of Eugene Burrus, a former assistant general counsel at Microsoft who is now an adviser at McKinsey & Co. Microsoft was a longtime foe of Google and advocated in the U.S. and Europe for antitrust action against the company. Burrus also represented clienRead More – Source