Unites States of America v. Apple, Inc. et al

Filing 185

Letter addressed to Judge Cote from Apple, Inc. (Richard Parker) dated 2/14/2013 re: Apple/Amazon Discovery Dispute. Document filed by Apple, Inc. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A, # 2 Exhibit B, # 3 Exhibit C)(cr)

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Exhibit A 1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK --------------------------------x UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, vs. CASE NO. 12-CV-2826(DLC) APPLE INC., et. al, Defendants. --------------------------------x HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL VIDEOTAPED DEPOSITION RUSSELL GRANDINETTI JANUARY 28, 2013 1918 Eighth Avenue Seattle, Washington REPORTED BY: PAUL J. FREDERICKSON, CCR, CSR JOB NO. 28636 RUSSELL GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 64 1 GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 2 MR. PARKER: 3 this is 4. 4 5 I want to mark as -- I think Am I right? 10:02:29 6 [Deposition Exhibit 4 marked.] MR. KIPLING: This is probably an opportune 7 time for me to ask: 8 this transcript as highly confidential? 9 10 What do I need to do to designate MR. BUTERMAN: 10:02:56 I think what we've been doing is you can make the point on the record that we will be 11 designating the transcript at least temporarily from this 12 moment forward as highly confidential, and then the 13 parties have been going back after the deposition, after 14 they've reviewed the final transcript, to see what 15 10:03:14 portions needed to be designated highly confidential. 16 But we can sign -- I think we can all agree to assign a 17 highly confidential status for the deposition pending 18 review of that. 19 20 MR. KIPLING: 10:03:26 Okay. I would like to designate it as highly 21 confidential pending further review, and that was 22 highlighted by the fact that this document is 23 extraordinarily sensitive, with limited distribution 24 within Amazon. 25 10:03:59 [Pause.] DAVID FELDMAN WORLDWIDE, INC. 450 Seventh Avenue - Ste 500, New York, NY 10123 1.800.642.1099 RUSSELL GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 161 GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 1 2 A. In Amazon culture? 3 Q. What is "Jeff's boathouse"? structure or is that something -- something else? 4 5 Is that a A. 13:21:52 There is a house on -- there's a structure 6 on Jeff's property that I -- I don't really use the 7 term "boathouse" and haven't done, but it was on the 8 water. Q. 9 10 Okay. So on Friday the 22nd you got this email; 13:22:05 correct? 11 12 A. Yep. 13 Q. And the email -- 14 A. I mean, I'm just looking at the date. 15 Q. Yeah. 16 A. So I believe that to be true. 17 Q. And the meeting was sometime earlier than that. 18 Is it a fact that there was a meeting at Jeff's 19 20 13:22:20 agency? 21 A. 22 I don't remember the specific date. We -- a group of us met at Jeff's house on some weekend. 23 Q. 24 25 boathouse on Sunday morning, the 24th, to discuss 13:22:45 All right. [Deposition Exhibit 13 marked.] DAVID FELDMAN WORLDWIDE, INC. 450 Seventh Avenue - Ste 500, New York, NY 10123 1.800.642.1099 RUSSELL GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 162 1 GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 2 A. Okay. 3 Q. Does this refresh your recollection about a 4 5 Thank you. meeting at Jeff's boathouse at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, 13:23:23 6 January 24? A. Again, just because it was a while ago, I 7 can't say I remember the date in my mind. 8 meeting at Jeff's house over the weekend around this 9 time frame. 10 13:23:33 Q. I do recall Is that a regular occurrence in your 11 experience to meet at Jeff's, Jeff's house on a 12 weekend, on a Sunday morning? 13 A. 14 15 I've met at Jeff's house a couple times and I would not say it's a regular occurrence. 13:23:48 16 Q. Less than five times, would you say, in the time you've been at Amazon? 17 A. Yeah, something in that, in that nature. 18 Q. And Mr. Bezos was the host of this meeting? 19 A. Well, it was his house. Q. It was at his house? 21 A. Yeah. 22 Q. And he was present during the entire 20 13:24:05 23 meeting? 24 25 A. 13:24:11 He was present during the meeting, yes. Q. How long did the meeting last? DAVID FELDMAN WORLDWIDE, INC. 450 Seventh Avenue - Ste 500, New York, NY 10123 1.800.642.1099 RUSSELL GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 163 1 GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 2 A. 3 I'm not -- I'm not certain. 4 5 I recall a couple of hours, maybe two, but Q. 13:24:17 And what the topic -- excuse me -- the topic of the discussion at the meeting? 6 MR. KIPLING: 7 I'm going to caution the witness. 8 You can give a general topic here. 9 But I have discussed this meeting with him. 10 13:24:26 The general counsel of Amazon and their regulatory counsel 11 were present, and this was a meeting at which Amazon 12 employees were seeking legal advice. 13 instruct him not to disclose what was discussed at that 14 meeting. 15 13:24:37 16 MR. PARKER: So I'm going to Can you read back the question? And we'll try to get an answer from the witness. 17 [The court reporter read back the question.] 18 A. 19 20 My recollection is that, given the proposals we had seen in the prior couple of days 13:25:02 21 about agency, we wanted to get together to discuss the topic. 22 Q. 23 And did you -- was there a discussion of a 24 25 Okay. business strategy in response to the request you had 13:25:18 been receiving that we've been talking about today to DAVID FELDMAN WORLDWIDE, INC. 450 Seventh Avenue - Ste 500, New York, NY 10123 1.800.642.1099 RUSSELL GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 170 1 GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 2 A. No. 3 Q. Was there a discussion in that meeting of 4 5 any respect in which agency might be good for Amazon, 13:31:30 that is, sort of a "just say yes" policy and go to 6 agency because it's in Amazon's business interest? 7 that discussed? 8 MR. BUTERMAN: 9 10 A. 13:31:46 Was Objection to form. Again, because I was informed by counsel about the serious legal issues involved in the agency 11 proposal, in my mind the business and legal issues are 12 inextricable, and that's the reason we asked -- I 13 believe they joined the meeting. 14 me it was appropriate for them to join the meeting, 15 13:32:01 I was -- they told and we sought their advice during the discussion. 16 Q. I'm sorry, who told you it was appropriate 18 A. Our counsel. 19 Q. Were they -- A. Having reported the circumstances of the 17 20 for -- 13:32:09 21 proposals we were given from publishers, the advice I 22 got from counsel was there were serious legal issues 23 tied up with the proposals we had received from 24 publishers, and that if we met, we should include 25 13:32:21 them, so we get their advice. DAVID FELDMAN WORLDWIDE, INC. 450 Seventh Avenue - Ste 500, New York, NY 10123 1.800.642.1099 RUSSELL GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 203 GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 1 2 conversations with Apple about that policy and its 3 impact on Kindle and vice versa. Q. With whom at Apple did you speak? A. Phil Schiller, Eddie Cue, Steve Jobs. 6 Q. Okay. 7 But nothing during the 2010 time period when 4 5 14:12:03 you're negotiating these agency deals? 8 9 A. No, I did not. 10 Q. All right. 11 Did anybody at the publisher in connection with 12 negotiating the agency deals mention the type of 13 contract that they may have had with Apple? A. 14 15 14:12:36 In my experience publishers didn't often or ever -- I can't recall them talking about Apple specifically. 16 Based upon what I was reading in the press at 17 18 the time and indirect intimations of publishers, 19 sometimes I got the sense that their negotiations with 20 14:12:50 us were being driven by their Apple contracts but I -I can't point to anything specifically. 21 Q. 22 Can you point to any publisher that said 23 that, that what we're doing now is being driven by our 24 Apple content? 25 14:13:08 Anybody say that to you? Any of the publishers say that to you? DAVID FELDMAN WORLDWIDE, INC. 450 Seventh Avenue - Ste 500, New York, NY 10123 1.800.642.1099 RUSSELL GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 204 GRANDINETTI - HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 1 A. All right. that. 3 4 5 I don't remember specifically them saying Q. 2 MR. PARKER: 14:13:15 6 right. 7 So let's do 52 here. All BY MR. PARKER: Q. 8 While we're finding the document, let me ask a couple of questions. 9 10 We're going to look at the -- 14:13:27 So going back on Macmillan, shortly following 11 the boathouse meeting, Amazon made a decision not to 12 sell Macmillan's books; am I right? A. 13 don't remember when. 14 15 It was some number of weeks after that. 14:13:48 Q. Right. And we talked about the participants in that 16 17 decision. 18 was what? 19 A. 20 And your business objective in doing that In -MR. KIPLING: 14:13:55 In doing what? 21 A. Yeah, could you clarify? 22 Q. Excuse me. In refusing to -- withdrawn. Let me start over. 23 Your business objective in refusing to sell 24 25 Yeah. 14:14:07 Macmillan's books was what? DAVID FELDMAN WORLDWIDE, INC. 450 Seventh Avenue - Ste 500, New York, NY 10123 1.800.642.1099 I

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