It is difficult for an ongoing business (or an investor) to go bankrupt without debt.
- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / Shrewdsmith
No. of Recommendations: 5
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/08/doj-indicates-its-...
* The Department of Justice late Tuesday indicated that it was considering a possible breakup of Google as an antitrust remedy.
* The DOJ said it was “considering behavioral and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search.”
* The judge has yet to decide on the remedies, and Google will likely appeal, drawing out the process potentially for years.
This reminds me of the MSFT scenario. Ruled their "legacy" business (desktop computing) was a monopoly, just as the market was switching to cloud computing. Search is moving to AI and traditional search is likely to be less of a driving force for the market.
tecmo
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No. of Recommendations: 3
This reminds me of the MSFT scenario. Ruled their "legacy" business (desktop computing) was a monopoly, just as the market was switching to cloud computing. Search is moving to AI and traditional search is likely to be less of a driving force for the market.
That's pretty much the Justice Department's argument. Entering the brave new world of AI, it sees Google steering users to its own version by making it the default choice on its dominant web browser, mobile platform, etc. Unrestrained, it could also continue to pay companies like Apple and Samsung to make Google the default AI engine on their devices.
“Google’s ability to leverage its monopoly power to feed artificial intelligence features is an emerging barrier to competition and risks further entrenching Google’s dominance,” the government said in its new filing in the case.
One interesting remedy hinted at in the filing is that Google share the underlying data from its search business with competitors. An ongoing byproduct of its current near-monopoly in search, in addition to capturing the lion's share of related ad revenue, is that the data it collects from all those searches keeps widening the knowledge gap between it and other search engines.
Meta has already made its AI engine, Llama, open source. I wonder if Google would consider doing the same with Gemini.
One analyst argued this morning that Google should engage aggressively with the government to shape terms of a possible settlement lest it face the Microsoft outcome -- a long, drawn-out legal battle that distracts it from keeping up with the fast-moving tech world. Microsoft famously missed the move from desktop to mobile during its long battle with Justice.
There is an obvious alternative Google might offer the government: building in choice screens for both browsers and search, where users setting up devices or using web platforms are asked to choose browsers and search engines from a list of available options. That's required now in EU countries under the Digital Markets Act that went into effect in March, so Google is already operating under those rules in one of its major markets.
Early returns suggest it hasn't hurt Google's market share much, at least so far. Google search and the Chrome browser achieved their current dominance by performing better than their competitors. If giving users a choice were enough to fend off U.S. regulators, it might reduce Google's market share by less than one might suppose.
No. of Recommendations: 2
The DOJ drives me crazy with its unending passion to suddenly attack our best American big tech businesses. Even Cramer totally went off on DOJ and is concerned wrt DOJ overreach.
This response hits the nail on the head imo.
“We believe that today’s blueprint goes well beyond the legal scope of the Court’s decision about Search distribution contracts,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president for Regulatory Affairs at Alphabet, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. “Government overreach in a fast-moving industry may have negative unintended consequences for American innovation and America’s consumers.”
I’m just holding the position which I started 20 years ago. Wish my tax dollars were not directed here. The attorneys will do great on both sides.
No. of Recommendations: 7
The DOJ drives me crazy with its unending passion to suddenly attack our best American big tech businesses. Even Cramer totally went off on DOJ and is concerned wrt DOJ overreach.
Monopolies can be good for shareholders, but are often not great for consumers or for the economy in general. (yes, with a market share above 90% Google has a monopoly - and it would be difficult for a competitor to disrupt that business). However, it seems they are always "a step behind" the market. In this case (and in the case of MSFT) - the market is shifting. For MSFT it was shifting from a desktop OS to a Mobile OS + Cloud Platform Services. In both cases they faced credible competition (Apple, Google, AWS, etc...) and as it turns out the desktop business was already "toast".
Imagine if they had spun off desktop software as a separate business, what would be the value of it today? 1/100th? the value of MSFT stock?
I think with Google, AI is likely to be the next battle ground and they already face credible competition in this space.
tecmo
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