Goldman Sachs has capitulated in its legal battle with fierce online critic, blogger Mike Morgan, over his use of the domain name goldmansachs666.com.
In April, lawyers for Goldman sent investment advisor Morgan a cease-and-desist letter, accusing him of violating intellectual property rights in relation to the domain name and demanding he stop using it.
The blogger hit back, filing a complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida asking it to declare he is the lawful owner of the domain and that it does not violate trade mark law.
Now, in a stipulation and voluntary dismissal, the bank has agreed to "refrain from any action that interferes with Morgan's use and registration of the Internet Sites" as long as he continues to display a disclaimer and the sites are not used for commercial purposes.
On his site, Morgan says: "True knuckheads that think they can bully anyone. Well . . . they bullied Bush, and they're bullying Obama and his Gang of Goofballs, but I hate the bad guys . . . and Mike Morgan never backs down."
Although he has won the right to continue with his blogging, Morgan is stepping back from the site in the wake of a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery at the end of May. He is now offering to turn it over to a person or group interested in managing it.
On Tuesday Goldman again courted controversy, reporting a 65% rise in second quarter profits to $3.4 billion and earmarking $6.65 billion for pay and bonuses, meaning staff are set for an average compensation packet of over $770,000 this year.