Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
I think that was triggered by Bronwich's insistence at interviewing Jonathan Ive, who has nothing to do with ebooks, but has everything to do with product design at Apple. He's Apple's lead designer and has his hands in pretty much every major physical product that Apple does. He is also apparently a very private person and like many "talents" doesn't play well with the suits.
|
He was the person who designed (helped design?) the iPad, which is what prompted Jobs and Cue to launch their e-book store, which is what brought about agency pricing.
Bromwich wants to interview all the executives and all the members of the board. And why shouldn't he?
These are the people who, along with the late Jobs, were
responsible for Apple's egregious violations. They okayed everything Apple did. They're the ones who set the tone for the entire company. Bromwich needs to get a feel for what their understanding of the affair is and how they are affecting the rest of the company in order to be able to tell whether the antitrust measures Apple is going to put in place can be effective. And for them not to be able to set aside one hour out of their day, with plenty of advance warning, to meet with the man is ridiculous. I'll bet they spend longer than that eating lunch every day.
(Note that, per page 13 of the
final injunction order which both the DoJ
and Apple crafted together and signed off on, Bromwich specifically has the power to speak to
any Apple personnel (yes, including Jony Ives and frickin'
Al Gore),
without Apple interference, in the performance of his duties. Apple sure didn't complain that Bromwich might want to talk to its execs and board members while they were agreeing that he should be able to. Odd that they should suddenly object once he actually tries to start doing his job, isn't it?)