Another antitrust investigation of a computer giant…
Reports: Google to Face Broad Antitrust Investigation from U.S. Government
When I see something like this, I start getting really cynical, based on the Microsoft experience of the late 1990s:
- Can the market be defined accurately?
- Will Google have a hand in defining the market, as it seemed Microsoft did in their case?
- What sort of lobbying clout does Google currently have?
- If this really does go to trial, and Google is found guilty, and is forced to break up, will it end up like the AT&T breakup of 1994, where to company was reconstituted of its original parts less than 20 years later under a different market definition?
There are times I’m really glad I didn’t follow my original career trajectory in antitrust economics…it all seems so pointless in the legislative environment of the last thirty years…
