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Watchdog calls for Google break-up

Juha-Matti Laurio [PersonRank 10]

Friday, April 23, 2010
14 years ago3,429 views

Source:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/23/google_legal_antitrust/

"A California-based consumer watchdog called, er... Consumer Watchdog is calling for a Department of Justice investigation into Google.

The group, supported by mobile entrepreneur Simon Buckingham and lawyers for two price comparison websites, praised the DOJ for its action against Google Books and the FTC probe into the acquisition of AdMob.
...."

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

I like Google's response:

“We totally understand that with size and success comes scrutiny. Although given their track record, even if we broke Google in half tomorrow, Consumer Watchdog would probably insist that we split halves into quarters."

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/04/22/watchdog-calls-for-federal-inquiry-into-google/

ianf [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

Call it what you want, but there can be no denying that, phraseologically at least, the above quote is a classic "non-response."

I keep thinking, once upon a time Microsoft was an up and coming software company, before incompetence and fear of daring to upset stock prices by then-dominant players allowed it to expand beyond even their wildest dreams, and in less than a decade become an unmanageable, innovationless behemoth. By analogy, perhaps breaking up Google now –into a number of more vertical-goal, now-affiliated, now-competing companies, say– would in the long run DO US SOME GOOD? ("US" as in "us the end-users, not US-the-state).

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

Actually, Google's answer is smart, even if it may seem arrogant. Here's what the watchdog wants:

"One possibility would be to break Google into different companies devoted to different lines of business.  Search could be separated from advertising. Gmail and its new social networking service, Buzz, could be spun off as a separate entity as could YouTube, a Google acquisition that we believe should have been denied at the time of merger. Enterprise applications could be another separate business."

So the watchdog wants a company for each Google service, which is absurd and unrealistic.

ianf [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

The very concept of a "breakup" involves dissolving a larger entity into separate smaller (pluralis) units, so calling this floated proposal for one such "absurd" and "unrealistic" is just so much hot air, vapors and piffle. Google has come a long way from its original mission, and the bigger they get, the more unmanageable by default they become [acc. to common business management sciences & wisdom]. Thus "unrealistic" is in the eye of the emotionally-involved beholder; otherwise it's quite realistic, and then the old-unrealistic will become the "new black." Point?

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