Public Policy Blog

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Acquisitions and antitrust

Wednesday, December 15, 2010
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Labels: Competition , Public Policy Blog

6 comments :

  1. … December 15, 2010 at 12:00 PM

    The important thing is that Google has always said, Google has always said, if you don't like their services, the “competition is just a click away.” (In other words, "Like it or lump it.")

    With Google's increasing acquisitions, it is getting more and more difficult to "click away."

    The (lack of) availability of personal support from Google is notorious, and the odd ambitions of Google's CEO seem grandiose. This does not bode well for users who may feel "entrapped."

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  2. UnknownDecember 15, 2010 at 1:34 PM

    I’m glad you pointed to these examples.
    A trend seems to emerge among these ‘columnists’ in which they try to apply a double standard to everything Google, not hesitating about suggesting extraordinary measures and regulations that contradict the free market, sighting an acquisition being made or a new market being entered, which of course are very common, lawful, and logical actions that all big companies make all the time, but somehow they only cry foul when Google is involved, and so one has to suspect an arterial motive behind this rhetoric.

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  3. Fiona TigrisDecember 15, 2010 at 1:49 PM

    Great examples - but I missed Microsoft's acquisition of Farecast in 2008 - now bing-travel.

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  4. Craig KonieczkoDecember 15, 2010 at 3:32 PM

    The news industry has had it out for Google since the launch of Google News and Adwords before that. So not surprising that WashPost opinion is picking on Google's business strategy today.

    There is a belief among publishers and editors that these tools somehow infringe on journalistic integrity and the ability of news orgs to fund news rooms. However, used wisely, they both could've propped up the news industry and kept it on a growth path. But newspapers.com spurned these tools or tried to built their own, while Huffington Post put its imagination and grit to work and leverages all the web can bring them.

    Now even the adage "don't mess with people who buy ink by the barrel" has been disrupted; "don't mess with people who sell links by billions" would be more apt. Watch out, WP, cause Google drives more digital traffic to you today than you'd care to admit.

    Google has always been willing to play well with the news industry and even help them fend off competing forms of entertainment; after all, Google and the news industry share TEXT as their common medium. It's just that that insular old boys network has always wished Google away, and lacked the imagination to partner with Google constructively.

    What a missed opportunity overall. Today's Wash Post column is sour grapes.

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  5. UnknownDecember 15, 2010 at 8:55 PM

    just a brief look at the acquisition history of other tech companies might help understand the growing pains of companies.

    http://buzzintechnology.com/2010/07/a-brief-history-of-acquisitions-google-yahoo-apple-microsoft-and-ibm/

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  6. ManishDecember 16, 2010 at 5:16 PM

    Response from Steve Pearlstein -
    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/12/pearlstein_hits_back_at_google.html

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