Tech rivalries spill into Washington

Alliances between Silicon Valley powerhouses and their cousins in Seattle (WA) are constantly forming and breaking apart, with big names often coming down on the opposite side of policy and legislative debates. The result is that the “tech lobby” is far from monolithic, with big names in the industry often at odds with one another.

“The funniest thing is the myth that tech has been monolithically unified and has never had differences, that tech is one big happy family and they agree on issues and they have each other’s back in lobbying — you mess with one and you mess with all,” said Bruce Mehlman of Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas. “The tech industry in Washington is as quarrelsome and divided and eager to mess with each other as they are in Silicon Valley and the marketplace,” he said.