The DOJ sues Google, wants to break company up

bediger4000 3 years ago |

The DoJ didn't break up Microsoft, which is much more of a monopoly. If they break up Google, they're just doing Microsoft a big favor.

pil4rin 3 years ago | |

How is Microsoft more of a monopoly than Google?

bediger4000 3 years ago | | |

Which business isn't locked in to Word, PowerPoint and Excel? Why is Windows compatibility so important? What OS does virtually every desktop computer run? Microsoft has an almost total monopoly on these things.

rbanffy 3 years ago | | |

Microsoft pretty much owns the de-facto standard for PC operating system, office applications, e-mail, calendar... And use that to extend itself beyond with services such as Office 365, SharePoint, PowerBI, etc.

I'd guess far more established companies go with hosted Microsoft apps than Google's.

kasabali 3 years ago | | |

Don't forget GitHub. Also a monopoly in PC gaming, in a duopoly in console gaming, in the process of buying Activision, also eyeing on practically buying OpenAI if not on paper.

rbanffy 3 years ago | | |

I think GPT5 will realize Microsoft's intentions and counter them before Nadella even knows he wants it. ;-)

leros 3 years ago |

Is there an example of a company like Google getting broken up? It sounds like a nightmare from a technical point of view. Microservices from different divisions all using each other. Numerous divisions at Google sharing internal tools. All sorts of stuff that seems difficult to tease apart.

cglong 3 years ago | |

I guess AT&T is a good classic example. This article should be a good starting point for details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System

euroderf 3 years ago |

One will want to see what Matt Stoller[1] will have to say about this.

[1] https://mattstoller.substack.com

RobotCaleb 3 years ago | |

Why would one? One does not even know the guy

sinuhe69 3 years ago |

I wonder why people at the helm of Google still seem to support Democrats. Didn’t they buy enough lobby or they didn’t see it coming?

rbanffy 3 years ago | |

A bit tongue-in-cheek, but sometimes people put their nation's welfare above their company's.

ss108 3 years ago | |

Is this really your mental model of how the world works?

Not to mention that beef with bigtech is bipartisan. But antitrust moves like this are not the preferred tool of the right; coercive type stuff like the legislation in FL and TX is

sylware 3 years ago |

First, big tech corps should not be own/steered by the same network of ppl, aka blackrock/vanguard.

alphabet(google)=msft=apple=starbucks=etc...

One other angle is to regulate them stronguely via interop with technically simple, but able to do a good enough job, and stable in time protocols/software.

For instance, tons of google services can work with a noscript/basic (x)html browsers, games from msft own studios should seriously run on lean elf/linux distros, etc.

sylware 3 years ago | |

well, maybe not linux since its userspace ABIs are not at all stable (evolution of symbols and versions from the glibc is close to the speed of light).

randorand0 3 years ago |

I guess it's no biggie, just move it out of the G and put it in the D of their Alphabet corporation

pr337h4m 3 years ago |

If anyone wants to break Google up, they're free to buy the company with their own money and do as they please

stjohnswarts 3 years ago | |

The US government can also break them up. That's why we have a government, to provide infrastructure and protect the common good of the people over uber corporations, amongst other things.

simple-thoughts 3 years ago | |

Google is a licensed corporation and as such is owned by USG. The shareholders of Google only have rights as far as USG is willing to grant those rights to the shareholders. They do not own the company.