Staffers from search giant Google have visited the White House an average of once a week during President Barack Obama’s time in office, the Wall Street Journal reports based on visitor logs and emails. All told, Google employees have met with White House officials roughly 230 times since Obama took office.
The meetings between Google staff and White House officials ramped up in late 2012 while the company was facing an antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. Top Google executives also met with FTC officials as that investigation was wrapping up.
Via the Journal:
Google co-founder Larry Page met with FTC officials to discuss settlement talks, according to visitor logs and emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt met with Pete Rouse, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, in the White House.
The FTC ultimately decided in early 2013 not to bring antitrust charges against Google after it voluntarily agreed to change its business practices. According to a separate recent report in the Journal, senior FTC staff recommended that the agency should bring such a lawsuit against Google, revealing just how close Google came to facing charges.
Google posted fourth quarter earnings in January of $6.88 a share, or up from $6.00 a share last year. Revenue rose to $18.1 billion from $16.86 billion. But analysts expected the company to report earnings of $7.11 a share on revenue of $18.46 billion, according to CNBC.