Google billionaires get another jet
The fun thing about having lots of money is you can buy as many toys as you want. Over at Google it's a veritable playground.
(Credit:
Boeing)
A company controlled by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt, with the strange name of H211 LLC, has an agreement to land four jets at Moffett Field, according to documents released to The New York Times after the paper filed a Freedom of Information Act request. Moffett Field, which is operated by NASA Ames Research Center, is very close to Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters.
So, in addition to the two Gulfstream Vs and a Boeing 767, the Google billionaires anticipate landing a Boeing 757 at the airfield starting sometime next month, the documents show.
Google and NASA have a public-private partnership that gives NASA scientists access to the planes and provides fees that help defray the costs of running Moffett, a Google spokesman told the Times. Oh, and the Googlers have bought carbon offsets to mitigate the Boeing 767's negative impact on the environment, he says.
The Google billionaires are paying $1.3 million annually for the Moffett rights.
Some may see the planes as a sign of indulgence. And they have the community up in arms over the increase in flight traffic over the area and other CEOs in the area jealous that they weren't the ones to score a Moffett deal.
Actually, maybe these aren't just toys to the Google guys. Maybe they are a reflection that the company has become so important it needs special privileges, and a way to evacuate large groups of people out of the area quickly.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor. 
elsewhere?
To show this kind of comparison would show --at least in my
opinion-- more professionalism and a little less of sensationalism
by the author.
Fine if they used their own cash but this was a Google expense. As a shareholder I don't find this a good use of MY money, however miniscule a portion it represents.
the founders of Google.
How is it related to Google's shareholders?
Here's an earlier article saying the SF Gate reported it was paying
1.3 Million with an M, annualy. Makes much more sense
considering 1.3 billion could buy around 4 or so 757's.
- I have a suggestion.
- by halfsek October 12, 2007 4:29 PM PDT
- If you're so worried about carbon and the environment, how about
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(10 Comments)you buy offsets without creating more carbon. That way you'll
actually be reducing the amount of carbon in the air rather than
just breaking even.
If not, then at the least, buy double the amount of offsets so you
still "help the environment" in spite of your selfish indulgences.
I've even got a third option. If you're SO worried about carbon, then
web conference for all of your meetings.