Google now spends more on lobbying than Lockheed Martin

Google is looking to extend its power and influence beyond the Internet and Silicon Valley. According to The New York Times, the company spent a record $18.2 million on lobbying in 2012 and is now the eighth largest firm in Washington D.C., beating out Microsoft and old timers like Lockheed Martin. Google must keep regulators at bay as it continues to push the limits on personal boundaries. The company has previously been targeted for its sometimes questionable privacy practices, numerous antitrust allegations and for collecting personal information from wireless networks with its Street View vehicles. Among other things Google is pushing for, a complete overhaul to the country’s immigration laws. Google would like the government to change immigration laws for foreign students, especially those studying engineering or mathematics, to make it easier for them to say in the country after completing college. Thus far its lobbying efforts appear to be paying off, in December the FTC found Google did not violate antitrust laws.