woah. This Friday? Too much moving on court dockets so I will surface for you. This matters, in this mega-Facebook case, as highly respected Chenault was Chairman of Facebook's board during its biggest scandals. WSJ reported he left board after disagreements with Zuckerberg. /1
Here is the report on his departure, it includes reports of disagreements with Peter Thiel, too, over elections policies and "clashes" over moderation policies.
Btw, highly relevant to the last 24hrs of news. /2 wsj.com/articles/chena…
Moving on, Zuckerberg has also been noticed for deposition after "alleged wrongdoing on a truly colossal scale." He was already deposed last month in Hawaii for 7hrs. I would expect SEC closely compares transcripts to their 2019 depo which @zamaan_qureshi managed to unseal. /3
@zamaan_qureshi This was all uncomfortable to him likely as it involves attempts to hold him personally liable in the scandal. First, in his failure to protect consumers. Now, in allegedly (over)paying off the FTC and SEC to make personal risk go away while profiting off the stock. /4
@zamaan_qureshi Board members during the time including Marc Andreessen, Sheryl Sandberg, Peter Thiel were already deposed according to the docket. Jeff Zients looks to be next month recognizing he's a bit busy right now (Biden's Chief of Staff). /5
@zamaan_qureshi Zients also appears in sanctions motions against him and Sheryl Sandberg for not preserving emails. Plaintiffs note this isn't some new form of comms (Signal, Google chats, etc) but simply, albeit sensitive, emails they were told to preserve and they failed to do it. /6
@zamaan_qureshi Read closely. In the case of Sandberg, this is allegedly her gmail account where she discussed sensitive matters. Here, getting outside advice on her and Mark's risk.
Wow. "I am raising a double fisted red flag now just to be 100% sure you're in double-fisted red flag mode."
/7
It should be noted that the allegations are Zients just let his emails autodelete during the litigation hold whereas Sandberg proactively deleted her emails. /8
Sandberg and Facebook's attorneys have argued that all of super sensitive personal emails were also copied to someone else at Facebook intentionally to make sure there was access to them. I find this to be a compelling counterpoint to why that answer shouldn't be trusted. /9
Some of these Sandberg emails on her pseudonymous gmail account were highly relevant, sensitive topics at the time. Interesting in March 2017 there were emails about Cambridge Analytica since I believe Zuckerberg told SEC and House the scandal hit his radar in March 2018. /10
@AOC On Zients, it's more a question whether there really would have only been two emails considering the global investigations of Facebook and his role on the board of directors and the highly sensitive board committee to settle them. /11
@AOC I mean he was on the actual committee that was formed to stamp Zuckerberg's deal for $5B+ with the FTC and SEC to settle the complaints and remove any personal liability for Zuckerberg. Presumably these are the two emails he did receive - other sensitive matters. /12
@AOC I'll stop. But again just trying to bubble up this very active docket in DE. In addition to SCOTUS deciding Friday if it grants cert in FB's inflated reach fraud case, the securities case in NdCal which SCOTUS just pushed back to district court, and FTC breakup April trial. /13
Here is how NYT reported it in the complaint. Google and Facebook suggested it was misrepresented. Their proxies have misled public into thinking it was dismissed from lawsuit despite Google's CEO being deposed about it only months ago. /3 nytimes.com/2021/01/17/tec…
woah. ~300 redacted summary judgment google exhibits posted in TX. I've uploaded all. most eye-popping - we finally get Google-Facebook contract (aka Jedi Blue) alleged as bid rigging (yes, press was misled, it's still part of the claims). /1
If you need a definition for Match Rate, Google and Facebook include it with example of using the "encrypted blob" on mobile, feels very much like a fingerprint y'all. Here is the full contract, don't sleep on section dealing with monopoly enforcement. /2 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
There are a ton of new exhibits from discovery with similar themes of Google secretly using projects to manipulate its black box auctions. "The first rule of Bernanke is we don't talk about Bernanke." /3
Justice takes time. What he knew when. AOC will remember this, “Their lawsuit says Zuckerberg—facing the risk of personal liability over the data privacy scandal—got himself out of trouble by agreeing to pay a larger-than-necessary $5 billion fine with shareholder money.” 1/3
Here is the full report from Bloomberg on Zuckerberg’s deposition which apparently was cut short and late on docs on Dec 3rd. Board members Thiel, Andreessen, others all being deposed these weeks. Press allowed Facebook to rewrite history on this. 2/3 news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-p…
Here is a good thread that will get you into the details. Sheryl Sandberg also deposed although her assumed prior SEC deposition was sealed. We did finally get Zuckerberg’s which showed his nerves and that the scandal was on his mind much earlier. Thanks to @zamaan_qureshi 3/3
Overnight: FTC plans to call CEO Zuckerberg and (former) CTO Schroepfer in first 2 wks of trial (late April) in DC seeking to break up the company for abuse of monopoly laws. Also on their short list are some very big roles and names. Very likely driving behaviors at the top. /1
As I know their roles...
Chris Cox - chief product officer who took a break when scandals accelerated, and avoided testimony in UK.
Javier Olivan - now COO, key lieutenant
Sheryl Sandberg - former COO, on everything
Alex Schultz - key growth hacker, now CMO /2
Adam Mosseri - key lieutenant, now runs Insta
Dave Wehner - former CFO, deal approval including $19B with no real revenue WhatsApp
Fidji Simo - (former) always in mix, product leadership
Guy Rosen - Onavo alleged packet sniffing of WhatsApp, Snap /3
Woah. Google filed redacted versions of its Summary Judgment exhibits in Texas adtech antitrust case ahead of the March 31 trial. Although this case mirrors DOJ's case awaiting decision, it has even more eye-popping evidence. And an expert suggesting $29B in penalties. /1
"Project Bernanke" is an oldie but goodie that gets a lot of discussion. ICYMI, Google would allegedly increase the first highest and the second highest bid in its 2nd-price auctions then reinvest the "saved" funds back into other bids to Google wins more auctions. /2
The problem is while it may have ended up providing more revenue to the publisher (from/through Google) and no doubt to Google, Inc, it allegedly ignored the revenue which could have come through another channel if Google didn't manipulate the rev share as it ran the auctions. /3
US v Google II Closing arguments today.
70min for DOJ-> 95min for Google-> 20min for DOJ. Having predicted this case as better odds than search case (Google already lost in August), nothing changed my mind today. I wrote down: influence/$, complexity, deception, and arrogance. /1
I'm staying high level on perception first as findings of fact already covered much. On influence/$, DOJ pointed out early on and then again in rebuttal that every single witness presented by Google (except one) was paid or had grants from Google. /2
On complexity, Google again executed on its spaghetti defense with lead counsel, Karen Dunn, bookending trial by running over as she did in her opening. She appeared to skip dozens of slides, many minutes of close. And she loaded her slides while talking twice as fast as DOJ! /3