[ILUG] Mother of God!

[Kevin Philp]

On Wednesday 15 February 2006 15:38, Thomas Bridge wrote:
>On 2/15/06, Colm Buckley <colm at tuatha.org> wrote:
>> On 15 Feb 2006, at 13:04, Thomas Bridge wrote:
>> > Folks, Google is a PLC.   That's it - the moment they did that they
>> > moved away from a position where they could take a principled stand on
>> > things like Net censorship and towards a position where they had to
>> > take a pragmatic view,
>>
>> On 15 Feb 2006, at 13:35, Michele wrote:
>> > The entire "do no evil" ideal is cute, but not that realistic when
>> > they have
>> > shareholders to answer to [...]
>> >
>> > It's kind of amusing that people are only waking up to the
>> > realisation that
>> > Google is just as "evil" as any other company.
>>
>> http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288776/000119312504142742/
>> ds1a.htm#toc59330_1
>
>I wouldn't agree with the statement that 'Google is just as "evil" as
>any other company' - I think it's clear that they do try to follow a
>higher standard.
>
>Having said that, the letter you referred to makes a number of
>references to the interests of the shareholders - it is not in the
>interests of the shareholders to not go into China, so into China
>Google must go.
>
>Thomas
>
>
>
>--
>Thomas Bridge
>CCIE  #14108

But Google will now be moulded into what the shareholders want - and that is 
increasing shareholder value. The dominant shareholders are pension funds and 
large institutions and they will put Google under the same pressure as every 
other large PLC. If Google does not perform the board could be replaced by 
new people who will MAKE it perform. It takes a special sort of single minded 
visionary to drive a company in the face of shareholder pressure and most 
boards simply aren't visionaries - they are managers.

Irish farmers started several successful dairy co-ops who later went on to 
become very large and very successful PLC's. The same farmers now bemoan the 
fact that the dairy no longer has farmers interests at heart - it only has 
shareholders interests at heart.

Kevin.