(abstracted from CNET) H
P, which donated $1 million in funds and tech equipment to the past two Republican National Conventions, abruptly said it would snub this year’s GOP gathering in Cleveland.Apple, which committed computers and iPhones to the last two Republican conventions, also sent its regrets.
Motorola, which donated more than $600,000 during the 2012 RNC, took the same path.
Fifteen companies, which included Ford, Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo, in addition to the tech giants, withdrew or reduced their involvement.
Meg Whitman, the board chair of HP and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, reportedly compared Trump to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini at a gathering that included Republican bigwigs. HP didn’t verify that Whitman made those comparisons, but the company confirmed it would not provide support to either the Republican or Democratic conventions.
And some companies are still planning to participate.
Google will provide the GOP with live-streaming services, which it also offered for the 2012 convention.
Software giant Microsoft will provide the RNC with a host of products, including software and Surface laptops to help “record accurate vote counts” and share “information quickly and accurately with delegates and the public,” company executive Fred Humphries wrote in a blog post earlier this year. Microsoft won’t, however, make financial contributions to the RNC, after reportedly donating $1.5 million during the 2012 convention in Tampa, Florida. Microsoft will also provide products and services to the Democratic National Convention.
Facebook and Twitter will have a presence at both the RNC and DNC. Each social-media company will have a lounge area where attendees can “like,” “share,” and “tweet” during the event, depending on which service they’re using.”This support allows Facebook to facilitate an open dialogue among voters, candidates and elected officials during the conventions,” Erin Egan, a Facebook public policy executive, said in an email.
Twitter will also be partnering with CBS News to live-stream CBSN’s gavel-to-gavel coverage of the RNC. (CBS is the parent company of CNET.)