Monday, September 19, 2011

Google 21st Century Robber Baron - Forbes

Excerpt from a stark Google reality check

How can all this be? A top Google lawyer tells us how: “Google’s leadership does not care terribly much about precedent or law,” per the book In The Plex. Compounding the scofflaw nature of Google’s leadership, is that Google senior management have no practical accountability to their board.  Under the Sarbanes-Oxley, the Corporate Accountability and Responsibility Act, Google’s Board, “independent” directors and audit committee are supposed to ensure that Google senior management adheres to its legal and ethical standards and that Google has sufficient internal controls. But Google’s founders ensured that that accountability could not occur. In Google’s 2004 IPO, senior management were granted 10-1 super-voting shares, to ensure that Google’s senior management would control the company and that the Google Board would have no real power or accountability over senior management’s behavior, practices or ethics.

Google 21st Century Robber Baron - Forbes

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