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Johnstech

May 19, 2009

Will trust busters target Google?

MP3 - iTunes

Last week the Obama administration promised to strengthen antitrust enforcement as a means to deal with powerful companies. That would make the U.S. more aligned with the European Union, which last week fined chip maker Intel $1.45 billion for abusing its market power.

Technology companies such as AT&T, IBM and Microsoft have been the biggest antitrust targets for the government over the past several decades. In many ways, the most dominant tech firm now is Google, which is already under some scrutiny by the Justice Department. Last year the company abandoned a search partnership with Yahoo after the government threatened an antitrust lawsuit. And this year the government has opened two separate inquiries -- one for Google's book scanning project, the other related to Google sharing board members with Apple.

Will the government make Google a major antitrust target going forward? Possible but not likely, according to University of Iowa law school professor Herbert Hovenkamp.

Filed under: Google Government Podcasts
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