Google CEO Mocks Viacom As ‘A Company Built From Lawsuits’

Here’s a piece of news so devoid of news yet so wonderful that we can’t help but give it a mention.

It has to do with the ongoing spat between Google and Viacom, and this time involves Google CEO Eric Schmidt. According to a Reuters report, the company’s top spokesman was having a session of Q&A with reporters at the 25th Allen & Co meeting (where big media and tech moguls meet to chat casually about the day’s big issues) and let slip precisely what he thought of the company suing his own. Schmidt said: “Viacom is a company built from lawsuits.”

Explaining his view, he said that Viacom’s history was enough to back his assertion. “Look who they hired as CEO,” he said. “Philippe Dauman, who was the general counsel for Viacom for 20 years.” He also hinted a bit at the $2.4bn antitrust suit Viacom hit Time Warner with back in 1989.

Alright, so this latest of Google vs. Viacom developments isn’t the tastiest we’ve seen. It’s got some teeth, but Schmidt definitely could’ve bitten down harder, especially at a time when the company he heads has to contend with a $1bn lawsuit for allowing “massive copyright infringement” to be managed in an allegedly lax manner.

But he certainly got his point across, and we can only imagine that more lines of this sort will be volleyed across the court before a settlement is reached or a decision is laid down.

At the moment, it’s difficult to tell what the chances are for a settlement to be reached or whether both parties will fight to the bitter end. My money’s on a settlement, as Google, despite showing very little in the way of good will toward its copyright-crazy foe, will need to work out a media deal with “the other side” if it’s to make itself into a high-ranking distributor of premium content on the Web in the months and years ahead.

How do you think this thing will shake out?