SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Texas attorney general's office has hired three consultants for a multi-state probe it is leading into Alphabet Inc's Google, including an economist who worked with some of the firm's major rivals and a lawyer who is a Microsoft veteran.
A group of 48 state attorneys general, joined by Washington, DC and Puerto Rico, announced this month that they were investigating accusations of antitrust violations by search and advertising giant Google, one of several focused on tech firms.
Texas' contracts with Alford and Burrus - obtained by Reuters on Wednesday through a public records request - ran from May 29 through Aug. 31, with a maximum hourly fee of $500 and an optional extension. Alford said his contract had been extended through Aug. 31, 2021.Burrus, Caffarra and the Texas attorney general's office did not respond to requests for comment. Google, which has said it is cooperating with investigators, declined to comment.
Caffarra, standing among several attorneys general this month at a news conference for the Google investigation, posted on Twitter that the announcement was"a huge deal."Though Caffarra's contract with Texas calls for her to earn no money, a slide presentation from August posted on the Charles River website lists Google critic News Corp and competitors Microsoft and Amazon.com Inc among her clients on antitrust matters.
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