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Google chairman Schmidt warns UK businesses about selling out to foreign companies

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

August 26, 2011 | 2 min read

Google chairman Eric Schmidt has said that British start-up companies must stop selling out to foreign companies for the UK to create ‘powerhouses’.

Speaking at the Media Guardian Edinburgh Television Festival where he delivered the annual McTaggart lecture, Schmidt claimed that a ‘golden age’ was coming for TV and that the UK was ‘well-primed’ to lead it but said that the education system was failing, especially with science and engineering.

“There’s been a drift to the humanities,” claimed Shmidt, to the loss of science and engineering which are no longer championed, he said.

“You’re either a luvvy or a boffin,” he explained before adding that children’s enthusiasm for maths, science and engineering needed “reigniting” within the UK.

He then added that the UK needed to become “better at growing big companies.”

He continued: “The UK is does a great job at backing small firms and cottage industries. But there’s little point in getting a thousand seeds to sprout if they’re then left to whither or they get transplanted overseas. UK businesses need championing to help them grow into global powerhouses, without having to sell out to foreign owned companies. If you don’t address this, then the UK will continue to be where inventions are born, but are not bred for long-term success.”

Schmidt briefly discussed Google TV which is scheduled to launch in Europe next year, and on developing relationships between Google and television companies.

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