Nov 5, 2008 03:40 PM
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A disclosure statement is an odd place for a wedding announcement. But that is where conference organizer and AllThingsD blogger Kara Swisher has buried the news that she married her longtime partner, Google vice president Megan Smith, last night, before the passage of Proposition 8, California's gay marriage ban, made same-sex marriages illegal once more. (The couple had had previous ceremonies — including, while we're disclosing things, one that I attended — but this was the first one that was a legal marriage under California law.) This would be no one's business but their own, except for the fact that Swisher actively covers Google and its rivals.
Despite the marriage, Swisher's disclosure statement still claims that Smith's wealth in Google shares is not Swishers' as well:
A substantial amount of her income from Google is in shares and options, some of which she has sold and some of which she still holds. Megan makes all her own decisions related to these shares and options, and I do not own or control any of them.
Swisher explains to me that Smith's Google shares are going solely to their kids through living trusts, an arrangement which predates their marriage.
But really, does it matter? I've always felt that Swisher's claim that she doesn't own or control Megan's shares was a bit of a fudge on the real situation; Swisher and Smith share a house and raise children together, and their lives and fortunes are thereby entwined. And their relationship, whatever its legal status, will continue to raise eyebrows as long as Swisher covers the industry. Marriage won't change that. Nor, as much as Google executives, Smith included, might wish otherwise, will it soften Swisher's savage coverage of the company.
(Photo by Lane Hartwell)
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