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Posts Tagged “

conflicts of interest

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23andme

Google cofounder funnels money to wife's startup through Michael J. Fox charity

Google employees must avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, according to the company's code of conduct. But Sergey Brin is exempt from such bureaucratic trifles. The cofounder skirted ethical lines when he loaned money to 23andMe, a genetic-testing startup cofounded by his wife, Anne Wojcicki, and later had Google repay that loan in the course of investing in that company. The Google board's audit committee and CEO Eric Schmidt blithely signed off on the deal, however. Now, Brin has found a new way to route money to 23andMe, this time through a charity — thereby boosting, at least notionally, the value of Google's investment and his wife's net worth. Brin can claim it's all for a good cause, but the deal stinks to high heaven. More »

Feature

11:20 AM on Wed Jul 16 2008
By Owen Thomas
8,819 views, 23 comments

Latest by WagCurious: @drury: Wow, you people are wildly ignorant of federal tax law. Remind me to never let you prepare my tax return. It is a federal crime to donate to a charity (and take a write off) when that donation benefits more »

Google's conflicted board CEO Eric Schmidt's Apple board seat is only the beginning of Google's high-level conflicts of interests. Once Google's directors get done recusing themselves, there might not be anyone left in the boardroom. [Portfolio]

Comment

conflicts of interest

Eric Schmidt admits he was kicked out of Apple boardroom over iPhone-Android rivalry

Keep your friends close, and your enemies on your board of directors. That seems to be the rationale for Google CEO Eric Schmidt's continued presence in Apple's boardroom. Despite a promised rain of would-be iPhone killers powered by Google's Android operating system coming later this year, Schmidt said he's only had to excuse himself from board meetings "once or twice." (Photo by Steve Jurvetson)

1:20 PM on Thu Jun 12 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,403 views, 5 comments

geek love

Facebook's Julia Lam and Slide's Doug Sherrets like to SuperPoke

While people are busy complaining about Facebook's "Orwellian" redesign, you won't hear a peep from Doug Sherrets, who works in business development at widgetmaker Slide. Why? We hear Sherrets and Julia Lam, who works in platform product marketing for Facebook, are now — as Facebook profilespeak would have it — "in a relationship." Could that be a conflict of interest? Maybe, but you obviously can't credit all of Slide's success to Sherrets's abilities to sleep with the frenemy. Slide's most popular widget, SuperPoke, is said to be both sticky and fun.

8:40 AM on Tue Jun 3 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
1,832 views, 6 comments

Latest by Fidel on the Roof: Whoops!! Spoke to soon!!! [valleywag.com] more »

we read twitter so you don't have to

Michael Arrington doesn't appreciate Wired's abuse of his ethics

Wired on TechCrunch's syndication deal with the Washington Post:
We've got nothing against TechCrunch, but it seems crazy-crazy to us that the Washington Post, a paper known for the sort of reporting that can take down U.S. presidents, is publishing content written by a dude who invests in the companies he writes about.
Which naturally prompted the characteristically vulgar response from Michael Arrington, TechCrunch editor and bastion of indecorous surliness. Portfolio.com quotes Arrington: "Journalism is evolving."

10:00 AM on Fri May 9 2008
By Jackson West
1,891 views, 15 comments

Latest by raincoaster: @FlakJack: I'm with you. I don't really give a rat's ass about Arrington, but I have to take five for a sob break while I ponder what the WaPo used to be. more »

deathwatch

The Omnidrive story you won't read on TechCrunch

Until a recent article from ReadWriteWeb declaring online file-storage and sharing service Omnidrive dead, founder and CEO Nik Cubrilovic was missing in action. The support forums for customers went unattended even as the site went down. An investor, Clay Cook, who sunk six figures into the company couldn't get a reply to his email. Also nowhere to be found? Any reporting from TechCrunch. More »

10:40 AM on Tue May 6 2008
By Jackson West
2,655 views, 19 comments

clips

Schmidt: Microsoft-Yahoo would "elminate consumer choice"

In this excerpt from Eric Schmidt's interview with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, the Google CEO explains that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger would "eliminate consumer choice, particularly in electronic mail, instant messaging — things where they would have 80 or 90 percent market share." As an alternative, Google has proposed the idea of serving its ads against Yahoo's search, giving it control over 80 percent of the search advertising market. But that would eliminate advertisers' choice, not consumers'. So it's cool.

2:00 PM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
726 views, 5 comments

Latest by n/a: This guy looks more and more like Edward Hermann from The Lost Boys all the time. You expect him to start baring fangs and for his eyes to bug out any day now. Don't be evil, indeed. Self-aggrandizing lies. Oh, that's more »

ftc

Google's Aspen junkets for FTC commissioners just the start of its lobbying spree

In 2007, Google spent $1.5 million lobbying Washington, D.C politicians and regulators. According to public filings, much of that cash went toward getting the Google-DoubleClick merger approved. Google says the rest went toward patent and copyright reform, online privacy, energy independence, getting funding for scientific research and education, increasing the H-1B visa quota and making the case for net neutrality. (Net neutrality is the belief that Google, not telephone companies, should dictate what's carried on broadband lines.) It's unclear whether the $1.5 million sum includes the money a Google-backed foundation spent hosting a 2007 Aspen Summit conference held at the St. Regis Resort in Colorado. FTC commissioner William E. Kovacic attended and he later voted to approve Google's merger. So did fellow commisioners Jon Leibowitz and Deborah Platt Majoras, who attended a similar conference in 2006.

10:20 AM on Tue Apr 1 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
323 views, Comment

conflicts of interest

Fortune columnist fails to disclose Arrington tie

Josh Quittner, the Fortune executive editor who's reportedly plotting his escape from his gilded cage at the magazine, has written a perfunctory profile of TechCrunch blog impresario Michael Arrington. Nothing we haven't read before — including the obligatory paragraph about Arrington's conflicts of interest in writing about startups even as he invests in them. Quittner observes that the practice seems to boost Arrington's reputation in the Valley. One conflict Quittner never mentions: As editor of Business 2.0, where I worked for him, he tried to strike a deal with Arrington to save the magazine by merging it with TechCrunch. The effort failed, landing Quittner at Fortune.

5:00 AM on Thu Mar 27 2008
By Owen Thomas
851 views, 7 comments

Latest by matto: This one time, in 2001, I read an article in B2. Full disclosure. more »

conflicts of interest

Pay-for-play Yahoo Buzz "blows away" Digg -- but will users bite? Vote in our poll

Yahoo Buzz, the Digg competitor we uncovered last month, has Web publishers giddy over traffic binges. Us Weekly, Salon and Michael Arrington's TechCrunch all report that when Yahoo Buzz put links to their sites on Yahoo's homepage, they posted record traffic days. "It's clear that a link from Yahoo.com blows away anything Digg or any other competitor can offer," Arrington writes on TechCrunch. "That will keep the Buzz publishers, who must be invited into the service, paying attention." And paying for traffic, according to Yahoo's plan. More »

9:20 AM on Mon Mar 17 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
2,397 views, 3 comments

Latest by FiveStarEggRoll: I needs to incorporate a little Buzz when we launch our crappy little search engine. -Harry "Wantrapreneur" Wang more »

the sum of all human knowledge

Wikipedia scam made easy for reporters

WhoopsipediaAre you an investigative journalist? Here's a cheat sheet, with sources: The single worst charge against Wikipedia chair emeritus Jimmy Wales is that he erased a $5,000 donor's embarrassing page history, an act akin to shredding a dossier or spiking a feature story. This allegation allegedly (pardon my reporter-speak) comes from the donor himself, former Novell chief scientist Jeff V. Merkey. Wikipedia's own records show that Merkey donated, and that Wikipedia editors complained when Wales scrubbed Merkey's page completely. Why is this worse than Wales editing his girlfriend's page? If you're a gumshoe reporter, you get it already. More »

12:40 PM on Thu Mar 6 2008
By Paul Boutin
2,066 views, 5 comments

the sum of all human knowledge

Charge: Wikipedia flew Wales girlfriend on donors' dime

Elisabeth Bauer was Jimmy Wales's first big perk as lord and master of Wikipedia. As with Rachel Marsden, the Canadian journalist at the root of Wales's recent woes, Wales and Bauer struck up a friendship online, over Wikipedia. And people are now saying Wikipedia paid for Bauer, known online as "Elian," to travel with Wales as an upaid Wikipedia press officer — a title he insisted on for her, though some argue she was unqualified for the job. More »

2:40 PM on Wed Mar 5 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,818 views, 2 comments

Latest by matto: @Alaska Miller: have you seen jimbo? more »

the sum of all human knowledge

Resign, Jimmy Wales, resign

Jimbo, face it: You're not meant to live out your days administrating nonprofits and setting the low bar for lifestyle. You're not Al Gore. You're CEO material, meant to soar like an eagle, fly first-class, bang one bimbo after another, and dine at the finest restaurants. Your for-profit search engine Wikia could totally kill Google and make billions — ignore Marissa Mayer's giggling, we're serious here. Let go, let go of the tedious pro bono, pro-Bono work. Disengage from Wikipedia completely. The latest accusation — that you traded edits for donations — just show how dull fundraising is. The board of directors will thank you for making it safe for Seagate's chairman to donate another hundred grand, but screw them. This is about you, Jimbo. Become what you are.

(Photo by AskMen.com)

1:21 PM on Wed Mar 5 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,028 views, 7 comments

Latest by Dave Malhotra: I never understood why a guy who is a big fan of Ayn Rand would be running a non-profit in the first place. more »

the sum of all human knowledge

Wales accused of trading edits for donations

A post at AntiSocialMedia.net that's best quoted verbatim:
According to [former Novell chief scientist Jeff] Merkey, in 2006, Wales told him that in exchange for a substantial donation, Wales could use his influence to make Merkey's article more agreeable. Merkey made a $5,000 donation and hinted at the possibility of something much larger in the future.
Merkey claims, and the record confirms, that following his donation, Wales personally made several edits to the Merkey article, including a complete blanking of the article and destruction of its edit history.

1:19 PM on Wed Mar 5 2008
By Paul Boutin
1,431 views, Comment

the sum of all human knowledge

Wikipedians cover up for Jimmy Wales

"The Wikipedia effort is not personality-driven," claims a commenter who insists that "nobody cares" about Jimmy Wales's behavior. The cult of personality in action: Journalist Cyrus Farivar — a regular contributor to NPR, The Economist, Wired and the New York Times — has had his Wikipedia page deleted several times in retaliation for a joke he made on Slate ("Yes, I added an entry on myself to Wikipedia. Why haven't you?") Meanwhile, Wales's entry is missing the "Personal controversies" section that sprouts on any conservative media personality's page. Of course, his Fox TV paramour Rachel Marsden has one. Here's the current sum of all human knowledge of the Wales/Marsden affair stored in Wikipedia as of 9:15 a.m. PST: More »

10:20 AM on Wed Mar 5 2008
By Paul Boutin
1,593 views, 2 comments

Latest by raincoaster: And this post has had 702 views. Sweetie, I rest my case. more »

the sum of all human knowledge

Jimmy Wales's 3 sins

You probably don't care who Wikipedia's chair emeritus Jimbo Wales went to bed with, or what his official relationship to the site is now. What matters is that he's Mr. Wikipedia to thousands of volunteers who contribute to mankind's definitive collection of Foghat trivia. The past week's leaked chats and emails document three acts that aren't crimes, but certainly aren't Wales leading by example. Here's the cocktail-party list to remember. More »

6:00 AM on Wed Mar 5 2008
By Paul Boutin
5,723 views, 15 comments

the sum of all human knowledge

Wikipedia chair misleads reporter to protect junket junkie Jimmy Wales

Did Jimmy Wales misuse funds from the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit he set up in 2003 to oversee Wikipedia? Publicly, the foundation's leaders are saying no. Privately, foundation chair Florence Devouard has alternately bragged about how she's mislead reporters and upbraided Wales over the scandal. More »

3:20 PM on Tue Mar 4 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,562 views, 2 comments

the sum of all human knowledge

Wales's last-ditch bid to make up with girlfriend

A tipster reports overhearing Jimmy Wales at SFO the morning of Saturday, February 23, pleading with a girlfriend — presumably Rachel Marsden — to keep the relationship alive. His eyewitness report of the conversation: More »

3:40 PM on Mon Mar 3 2008
By Owen Thomas
5,063 views, 3 comments

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