BP pays for top spot for oil spill searches as stock price sinks

Search engine companies are BP's latest strategy to manipulate information to the public about the gulf oil spill. Type “oil spill” in those search engines and BP appears at the top of the page. BP is distributing its oil wealth to search engines as the company's stock price goes through the floor, threatening its future despite the fact that it has billions stashed away. BP is also taking heat from U.S. politicians who are criticizing the company for paying huge stock dividends while companies displaced by the disaster wait for damage claims. Meanwhile, the oil spill within the Gulf of Mexico 2010 added up to as much as 125 million gallons and counting on day 52 of the disaster.

Article Resource: BP buys top oil spill search listings as BP stock price plummets

Will money purchase love for BP?

Web users browsing for oil spill updates are in BP's PR crosshairs. USA Today reports that BP, which has been criticized for spinning and withholding data about the disaster, is paying search engine companies Google, Bing and Yahoo to show up as the top sponsored ad for search queries like “BP news,” “oil spill” and “oil spill claims”. BP's site, the destination for the sponsored links, presents the story BP would rather have told about the disaster with biased updates, videos and photos. The oil spill live feed, and its view of the ruptured well overwhelming in the oil spill cap, is conspicuously missing.

BP stock price under pressure

So far BP’s oil spill ploy with the search engine companies hasn’t helped its stock price. BP stock slumped to its lowest price in a lot more than seven years in London trading, driven by U.S. political pressure over its failure to halt the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico 2010. U.S. lawmakers demanding that BP withhold dividends until the oil spill is cleaned up are infuriating investors in Britain, where BP stock is widely held by pension funds. The Associated Press reports that when asked if BP should cut its dividends to shareholders House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “I think it is appropriate for BP to be paying businesses in the Gulf. … They have a responsibility under the law to pay these damages. They made $17 billion last year. Maybe individuals who receive dividends have deeper pockets."House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the Associated Press that BP should take responsibility under the law to pay damages before paying dividends to individual! s with deep pockets.

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usatoday.com

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