As soon as I read this part I figured they’d end up selling to Google, because only PR people would include a defensive aside like this :)

“In the days before the auction, [Microsoft] complained that Google, its biggest rival and likeliest competitor in the auction, could eavesdrop on private messages and somehow game the bids. Hinton had raised the same possibility with his students, though he was less expressing a serious concern than making an arch comment on the vast and growing power of Google.”