[full piece at NYT] July 29, 2001
Technology Pros Discuss What Comes After the Fall
Q. Analysts say that they don't put "sell" recommendations on stocks because companies then deny them access. Do you deny them access?
SCHMIDT The answer is no.
BARRETT Dead no.
Q. Do you deny them investment banking business if they put out a "sell" recommendation?
SCHMIDT The answer's also no.
BARRETT These are fallacious -
SCHMIDT They're just false. And they're offensive. They are made in the industry and they need to be refuted. Companies are highly, highly regulated on how they operate for all sorts of good legal reasons. And the modern-day C.E.O. is so highly constrained on what he or she can or cannot do precisely for that reason. It's a red herring.
What I always worry about is when the business seems to be about marketing to its shareholders rather than to its customers. And having now gone through this a couple of times on a personal basis, and I've certainly borne my responsibility for talking about the Internet and its phenomena and so forth, so I share a responsibility as well, I hope we go back to a model where the product that we're selling is the product that the company makes, whatever it is, as opposed to the C.E.O., the brand, the executives, the shareholders, whatever. Because ultimately the stock price - I learned this sort of the hard way - the stock price is the tail of the dog.
[snip]