Google chief meets with FTC to plead his case in antitrust probe

Google (GOOG) CEO Larry Page met with Federal Trade Commission officials this week as the agency started wrapping up its antitrust probe into the company, Bloomberg reports. An unnamed source told Bloomberg that Google has “been engaged in settlement talks with the FTC for about a week, including an effort to define whether there’s a market where Google has a monopoly.” Bloomberg also says that Google is trying to “persuade the FTC it hasn’t broken antitrust laws and that any final agreement with the agency shouldn’t be bound by a consent decree.” Reuters reported this fall that FTC officials were allegedly “convinced” that “Google illegally used its dominance of the search market to hurt its rivals,” although a later report from Bloomberg said that the government had started to doubt whether its case against the company would hold up.