Christine Varney, nominated by President Obama to be the next U.S. antitrust chief, may be out to break up Google. Or at the least, she seems to be letting it known that she’ll be keeping a close eye on it.
Varney has described Google as a “monopoly” that will be as powerful in the computing world as Microsoft was in the software.
Here’s what she said to Bloomberg:
“For me, Microsoft is so last century. They are not the
problem,” Varney said at a June 19 panel discussion sponsored by
the American Antitrust Institute. The U.S. economy will
“continually see a problem — potentially with Google” because
it already “has acquired a monopoly in Internet online
advertising,” she said.
Still, Google is “quickly gathering market power in what I
would call an online computing environment in the clouds,” she
said, using a software industry term for software that is based
on the Internet rather than in individual personal computers.
“When all our enterprises move to computing in the clouds
and there is a single firm that is offering a comprehensive
solution,” Varney said, “you are going to see the same repeat
of Microsoft.” As in the Microsoft case, “there will be companies that
will begin to allege that Google is discriminating” against them
by “not allowing their products to interoperate with Google’s
products,” Varney said.
TechFlash transcribed additional statements from Varney from an audio file on the AAI site.
“If any of my colleagues or friends from Google, or who represent
Google, are here, I invite you to jump up and scream and yell at me.
For me, Microsoft is so last century. They are not the problem. I
think we’re going to continually to see a problem, potentially, with
Google, who I think so far has acquired a monopoly in Internet online
advertising lawfully. I do not think they have done anything other than
be a spectacular, innovative company. I’m deeply troubled by their
acquisition of DoubleClick, and I’m deeply troubled by their deal with
Yahoo. I submit to you that this administration, although they may open
a investigation or a review of the Google-Yahoo deal, will do nothing.
I think this is a classic area to explore, how do you apply Section 2
in a highly innovative, highly networked, not terribly competitive
environment.”
However President Obama’s administration handles Google’s domination is yet to be seen. It’s clear that Varney didn’t raise this issue if she weren’t going to be overly observant of the search giant. Google better be on its best behavior under her watch. And, if Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, ever thought he could woo President Obama by
being an informal tech advisor to the administration, he was clearly wrong.
(Image source: 8vsb.files )
