Microsoft avoided the latest round of Big Tech antitrust scrutiny. Then it bought a company for $69 billion.
https://www.vox.com/recode/22893117/microsoft-activision-antitrust-big-tech
Tag: Antitrust
Amy Klobuchar and Tom Cotton’s Big Tech Anti-Monopoly Bill Exempts Their Preferred Firms
“Note, however, the bill stipulates that it only covers firms that are over the $600 billion line “as of the date of enactment.” In other words, if a company has a market cap under $600 billion on the day the bill becomes law, then that company is permanently exempt—even if it later crosses the threshold.
Two companies that are currently under the $600 billion line and thus exempt from the bill are mega-retailers Target and Walmart. These companies are both worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and their e-commerce platforms are growing at a faster rate than Amazon’s. But under the Klobuchar/Cotton law, it wouldn’t matter if Target and Walmart overtake Amazon—they would be immune from this new antitrust action, as long as they are small enough on the day the bill is signed.
Readers may be interested to note that Target is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Walmart is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. Isn’t that interesting? It’s probably just a coincidence that the $600-billion-at-date-of-enactment provision would shield the two most important companies in Klobuchar and Cotton’s home states.”
The Republican Antitrust Suit Against Google Is a Progressive Dream
“It’s hard to see how either consumers or advertisers would benefit—or change their ways—just because Google apps didn’t come preloaded on some phones or as the default search in some browsers. Presumably, Google wouldn’t magically lose its huge name recognition and Bing or Yahoo wouldn’t suddenly have better results. The government can meddle around the market’s edges all it wants, but they can’t force consumers to choose inferior products just to equalize market share.
“The complaint makes a lot of hay out of Google’s deal with Apple to be the default search engine on Safari,” and “of course, being the default helps increase market share,” tweeted Alec Stapp, director of technology policy at the Progressive Policy Institute. “But Tim Cook has also said that Google is the best search engine. Should the default be an inferior product?””