Tech titans set to attend Trump's meeting

Larry Page and Eric Schmidt were planning on going to the meeting, a person familiar with the decision said late Friday

President-elect Donald Trump’s sit down with technology titans next week will have two marquee attendees: Alphabet’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt.

Page, chief executive officer of the Google parent company, and Schmidt, the chairman, were planning on going to the meeting, a person familiar with the decision said late Friday. The person asked not to be identified because the decisions were not public. An Alphabet spokeswoman did not return a request for comment. An invitation went out earlier this week from members of Trump’s transition team, including venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz and Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins have said they plan to attend. 

Technology news website Recode reported earlier that Page, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg will go, along with Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos has also been invited and is likely to attend, Recode added. While an agenda was not listed on the invitation, the discussion is expected to touch on issues, such as immigration and trade, where Trump’s positions during the campaign opposed most of the tech industry.

Alphabet has become a major lobbying force in Washington, and has a wide range of national policy interests. Those include taxes on offshore earnings, data encryption, autonomous vehicles, telecommunications spectrum and health care. Trump has proposed weakening net neutrality rules, a longstanding priority for Google and other internet companies.

The meeting, scheduled for 2 pm December 14, will likely focus on possible repatriation of overseas earnings and corporate tax reform, said Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.