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    Google Demanded North Carolina Stay Quiet

    Google put pressure on legislators to stay quiet at WCNC-TV reports that during Google’s negotiations with North Carolina to house a huge server farm, lawmakers in North Carolina were pressured to keep quiet about Google’s tax break demands. State Commerce Secretary Jim Fain was told that if it was not kept quiet, Google would possibly […]

    Google put pressure on legislators to stay quiet at WCNC-TV reports that during Google’s negotiations with North Carolina to house a huge server farm, lawmakers in North Carolina were pressured to keep quiet about Google’s tax break demands. State Commerce Secretary Jim Fain was told that if it was not kept quiet, Google would possibly end negotiations with the state. Jim Fain said it “bothered me” for having to “work in the dark” and that Google did not “respect the laws of the land” during the process. In the end, North Carolina did win Google’s business and Google did get their tax break.

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    About the Author

    Barry Schwartz
    Barry Schwartz is a technologist and a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics.

    In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.

    Barry can be followed on X here and you can learn more about Barry Schwartz over here or on his personal site.