Apple + Google Investigated for Antitrust
The Federal Trade Commission is said to be looking into the ties between the Google and Apple Boards.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the NYT reports that the overlap in directors on the two boards is currently being investigated regarding the possible violation of antitrust laws. Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, and Arthur Levinson, the former chief executive of Genentech, sit on the boards of both companies and antitrust laws give the government the freedom to intervene if directors sit on the boards of two competing companies, particularly if their presence threatens to reduce competition.
According to the Wall Street Journal, lawyers say the issue is rarely pursued, partly because it is difficult to prove the impact of the overlapping directors on either company but partly because it’s easily resolved with a resignation from one director.
With Apple and Google competing in several areas (including browsers, mail clients and mobile platforms) it’s easy to see why the FTC is worried. The FTC is remaining silent on the issue and neither company has provided comment, despite being aware of the investigation. That said, it's still early days, so we’ll keep you posted on this one.
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Thank you. This has been a long time coming. Google shouldn't get to push applications through the app store that break the app store rules. No one else gets to.
There's always a bad Apple lurking. Google tricked us - coming off as the innocent search engine focused on the best possible search results. Once they became the biggest they gave us the holy grail, AdWords. Now everywhere I go I see Google ads in all corners of webpages. There's even a google ad right above and below my comment box as I write.
Interesting. Could this be why Google didn't license multi-touch from Apple for Android? Nah, probably not, but still, this is why the FTC needs to investigate, you can't say for sure what is and isn't a conflict of interest until you dig a little deeper. Also good to see someone besides Microsoft taking a little heat.
How can Apple and Google be competing with browsers and mail clients when these services are given away for free? They're not really competing in an economic sense.
I see no mention of phone sales which is the real push behind the FTC investigation. I think they could care less about advertising sales and free services. They are more concerned over products that cost money like the iPhone and Android OS becoming industry standards between two companies that have the same executives in charge. Hello price fixing!
lame. Those people didnt make the companies successful, the lack luster, underinformed, un-intelligent populous did.
I find it odd that they share directors. They are very different companies: Google's motto is all open source and about giving people options and features; Apple is about style over substance and about locking you into their proprietary world.
Thank you. This has been a long time coming. Google shouldn't get to push applications through the app store that break the app store rules. No one else gets to.
Sorry not familiar with this what rules were broken? I haven't heard about this.
Cool, my two least favorite companies getting investigated!
Can it get better?
norbs-
The search application Google released violates about five or six different rules for third party apps. It would be beyond impossible for a regular developer like myself to replicate the search application google released to the app store. It would be rejected, immediately, because of multiple rules I have broken. That right there is anti-competitive.
norbs-The search application Google released violates about five or six different rules for third party apps. It would be beyond impossible for a regular developer like myself to replicate the search application google released to the app store. It would be rejected, immediately, because of multiple rules I have broken. That right there is anti-competitive.
Well if you're coding for the Apple regime, you've accepted unfair treatment as part of the working enviroment. I'm with ya on the google part, but still. When you work for a dictator, don't be surprised if one day he shoots you in the foot for fun - that's a dictators right to do.
How can Apple and Google be competing with browsers and mail clients when these services are given away for free? They're not really competing in an economic sense.
Not only that, but it's not like they are the only options, or even the most popular.
The only think I think needs to be worried about is Android, but even then, if they decide the attempt price fixing, they'll just lose business to Windows Mobile.