Late on Monday, Bobbie Johnson reports, just before the expiration of a deadline imposed in May by the European Commission, news hit that Eric Schmidt had sent a letter to the EC competition chief Joaquin Almunia. “In it, he is said to have responded to a number of questions about Google’s behavior in the search market — offering what is described as a “settlement offer.” Sounds like a step forward, right? But hang on a minute: this is complicated stuff. So let’s try parsing this for a second.”