Google Inc. doesn’t believe it needs to change its ways despite three separate U.S. government inquiries into whether some of the Internet search leader’s actions are thwarting competition.
“There is no reason to be upset or surprised with the scrutiny,” Dana Wagner, Google’s competition counsel, told reporters Wednesday. “It comes with the territory.”
With technology playing an increasingly important role in society and Google steering most of the Internet’s traffic, Wagner said it’s understandable why the Obama administration is taking a close look at the Mountain View, California-based company.
“They wouldn’t be doing their job if they weren’t taking a look at all the industries people are telling them to take a look at,” said Wagner, who worked at the U.S. Justice Department for seven years before joining Google in 2007.
Wagner suggested the push to investigate Google is being propelled by “enemies” that the company has made as its search engine and other free or low-cost products siphon money away from other businesses in media and technology. Google reaped a $4.2 billion profit on revenue of nearly $22 billion last year.
Without getting into specifics of the various inquiries under way now, Wagner predicted Google would be able to amicably resolve any differences with the government.
“I am a lover, not a fighter,” Wagner said. “One of the reasons we have haven’t had a huge fight (with the government) is because we generally can find common ground.”
Google’s biggest clash with the U.S. government so far occurred last year when the Justice Department threatened a lawsuit to block the company’s proposed advertising partnership with rival Yahoo Inc., which runs the Web’s second most popular search engine.
Although Google still believes the government exaggerated the alliance’s potential effect on the Internet ad market, the company ultimately abandoned the Yahoo partnership.
Google also has shortened the amount of time it…