Antitrust

Online

Google’s Getting Hit With A 400-Page Smackdown From The European Commission

4:31AM December 3, 2011 | Kyle Wagner

The European Commission is the latest governing body to jump on the Google antitrust dogpile. According to the FT, it’s about to serve Google with a 400-page statement of objections, containing a litany of by-now familiar complaints. More »


News

US Government Taking A Closer Look At Google-Motorola Deal

8:14AM September 29, 2011 | Casey Chan

When ginormous companies try to buy gigantic companies, there’s always cries about monopolies, anti-trustiness and all those nasty words. So it’s really no surprise that the Department of Justice is now making a “second request” for more information about Google swallowing Motorola. More »


News

Does Google Deserve An Antitrust Arse-Kicking?

3:00AM September 22, 2011 | Sam Biddle

Today, Google’s going to be grilled, chopped and fried before US Congress, which is digging into the search giant over accusations of anticompetitive mischief. There are two possibilities here: Google’s breaking the law, or it’s a victim of its own success. More »


News

Google’s South Korea HQ Raided By Antitrust Officials

10:40PM September 7, 2011 | Kwame Opam

Google is about to undergo yet another antitrust investigation for its alleged monopolistic business practices, this time in Seoul, Korea. Regulators from the Korean Fair Trade Commission raided their Seoul offices yesterday as the first salvo in the probe. More »


News

Microsoft Is Allowed To Buy Skype

5:28PM June 20, 2011 | Kat Hannaford

It took the FTC a month and a half to look into Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Skype, but finally they’ve given the project a thumb’s up, deciding it doesn’t breach antitrust laws. [Reuters]


Mobile

Android’s Handset Partners Take Orders From Google’s Andy Rubin

3:03AM May 13, 2011 | Adrian Covert

Android boss Andy Rubin apparently tells handset partners what they can and can’t put into their phones. This is the latest bit of news to surface in Android’s struggle to decide whether it wants to be open source or economically viable. More »


News

Google Might Get Hit With Antitrust Investigation

11:41PM April 5, 2011 | Kyle VanHemert

According to Bloomberg, Google could be the target of a “broad antitrust investigation” by the US Federal Trade Commission. FTC officials are said to be waiting on a Justice Department ruling that will determine if Google’s attempted acquisition of travel software company ITA is anticompetitive before they proceed with the investigation. Mo money mo problems. [Bloomberg]


Software

Microsoft Blames Google For Sucky YouTube App On WP7

9:40AM April 2, 2011 | Adrian Covert

Microsoft is getting involved with the European Union’s antitrust investigation regarding Google, mostly regarding the lack of information Google provides search engine competitors for indexing YouTube videos. But even more interesting is Microsoft’s claim that their app is lacking because Google won’t provide the Windows Phone 7 team with the necessary data for the YouTube app that the versions on Android and iOS have. More »


News

Microsoft Accuses Google Of Anti-Competition

8:00PM March 31, 2011 | Kat Hannaford

How’s this for the pot calling the kettle black? Microsoft has made an official complaint to the European Commission, claiming that Google is behaving in an anti-competitive way when it comes to search. Namely, their acquisition of YouTube back in 2006 meant that competing search engines were restricted from “properly accessing it for their search results”. More »


Software

Happy 15th Birthday To Windows 95, The Ugly Duckling That Conquered Your Desktop

12:00AM August 25, 2010 | Sam Biddle

You’ll be forgiven if Windows 95 doesn’t summon a burst of nostalgia. It was never pretty, often cantankerous and, for the most part, our only option. But within two years of its release, 70 per cent of the planet was using it. More »