Ballmer Refutes Google's Talk of Antitrust
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Acquiring Yahoo wouldn't be anticompetitive when Microsoft's the underdog, CEO retorts.
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Google raises antitrust concerns in first public comment about Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo.
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Microsoft fired back at Google's attempts to have antitrust regulators take a second look at Vista's search capabilities, calling the search giant's claims "baseless."
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InfoWorld - Google is firing back at enterprise search vendor Autonomy, saying the company recently distributed a white paper that contains "significant inaccuracies" aboutÂ Google's Search Appliance.
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Comments made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last Thursday to an analyst conference for the most part went unnoticed until stories this morning cited excerpts from a freshly published transcript of that conference. In one such story, an excerpted partial sentence was interpreted as part of a statement that Microsoft may yet exercise its option to sue manufacturers of Linux operating systems other than Novell for infringement of patent.
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(InfoWorld) - In its clearest statement of intent so far, Google said that it will compete in an upcoming wireless spectrum auction --Â if the government agrees to certain rules. On Friday, Google sent a letter to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)Â chairman informing him that the company will commit a minimum of $4.6 billion toward the auction, but only if certain conditions are met. Google spelled out those conditions in an earlier filing with the FCC. The billion-dollar commitment could assure the FCC that if it does implement the conditions, it can expect to raise the amount of money it hopes to. "The odds are still against the FCC imposing the conditions Google seeks, but this significantly ups the ante," said Kevin Werbach, an assistant professor of legal studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and former counsel for new technology policy with the FCC. Google's proposals are controversial for existing mobile operators, which could decide not to participate in the auction if the rules don't suit them, resulting in potentially less income to the government. On Thursday, Verizon Wireless said that complying with Google's ideas would amount to corporate welfare and bad public policy. The $4.6 billion amount appears to be the figure that Google believes the FCC will require as a minimum price for the spectrum. In its letter to the FCC, Google wrote that it understood that a draft order from the commission had specified that figure. The FCC typically sets a minimum price to sell spectrum; if the minimum isn't met, the agency can cancel the auction. "We're putting consumers' interests first and putting our money where our principles are -- to the tune of $4.6 billion," Chris Sacca, head of special initiatives at Google, wrote on the company's public policy blog. Google says that unless the FCC sets certain rules on the auction, existing large mobile operators will inevitably win the spectrum, and competition in the market will stagnate. In order to prevent that, Google is urging the commission to ensure that end-users can download any applications, services, or content they want. Consumers should also be able to buy a phone and use it on any network. In addition, Google says the winner of the spectrum should be required to allow third parties to resell services over the network on a wholesale basis. Some other groups, such as Frontline Wireless, a company backed by luminaries including former FCC chief Reed Hundt and former Netscape CEO James Barksdale, have proposals similar to Google's. While Google has been vocally urging the FCC to ensure that the spectrum can be used by any device and service, the company has until now hedged on questions about whether or not it plans to bid for the spectrum. The FCC auction for 700-MHz spectrum is expected to happen next year. The frequencies are considered prime for mobile communications because signals sent through them can travel far and can penetrate walls better than higher frequencies. Much of the similar spectrum is already spoken for, so this auction is considered a rare opportunity. In a perhaps related announcement, on Friday U.K., femtocell maker Ubiquisys said that Google has invested in the company. Femtocells are small base stations that can be used in homes or offices to improve mobile phone coverage. Ubiquisys' current products operate over 3G networks.
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled a beta version of the company's new mashup tool, and criticized SaaS efforts by Google and others in a keynote at the Web 2.0 Summit today.
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The Federal Trade Commission has asked Google for more details about its proposed $3.1 billion purchase of online advertising company DoubleClick as part of an investigation into whether the deal raises antitrust concerns, a Google executive said yesterday.
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A set of plaintiffs in a class-action suit argued Monday that Google has not exercised reasonable care to prevent "click fraud" and has misrepresented efforts to stop swindlers from repeatedly clicking Web site links to drive up advertising costs.
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An ebullient Steve Ballmer, president and chief executive of Microsoft Corp. , said yesterday that his company is &quot;hell-bent and determined&quot; to challenge Google Inc. for leadership in the Internet search business.
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Deborah Platt Majoras said she wonât remove herself from an antitrust review of Googleâs purchase of DoubleClick, rebuffing requests from privacy groups opposed to the transaction.
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Google responded to a lawsuit filed against it by Northeastern University, denying claims that its core search service infringes on patented technology.
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According to a new Burton Group report, Google&#39;s hosted applications are not ready for the big leagues, but at least one analyst is countering that the report is overly pessimistic.
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Novell has issued a response to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer&#39;s latest attack on Linux. The Linux software maker accuses Microsoft of using biased reports to back up its claims, and has launched a website to debunk the myths.
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Microsoft attorney says Google is misusing principles of fair use for its own profit.
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(InfoWorld) - Google's claims thatÂ Microsoft's built-in Vista desktop indexing and search tool violates its antitrust agreementÂ could be difficult to prove even if the software does slow down the performance of Google's competitive Google Desktop offering. As long as a user can run alternative software to Microsoft's Instant Search software, it's unlikely that U.S. federal antitrust officials would consider coming down on the software giant, analysts and users said. Google's claims are far different than the ones posed by Netscape during the browser wars that led to the Department of Justice's antitrust suit in the 1990s, said Rob Helm, research director at Directions on Microsoft. "Microsoft beat Netscape in part by leveraging its relationship with PC manufacturers," he said. "This is a lot subtler." Google seems to be alleging that "if two pieces of software don't play together, then it must be an anticompetitive tactic of Microsoft's," Helm said. "I don't recall any past antitrust cases asserting something so broad," he said. The presence of Microsoft's Vista desktop search could be slowing down Google's product merely as an accident of product design, not because of any malicious intent by Microsoft, Helm said. "Even if Microsoft's software was perfectly written, the way Google interacts with it might be bad, and either company might be at fault," he said. "They could have both done the right things in different ways that might conflict with each other." According to a report in The Wall Street Journal Monday, Google sent a white paper to U.S. federal and state antitrust officials in April to try to convince them that Vista makes it difficult for consumers to use rival desktop search software. In its white paper, Google claims that Vista's search boxes and bars -- available in several places in the OS, including the Start menu and in the Windows Explorer file manager -- work only with Microsoft's search and indexing tool. The company also said it is nearly impossible to turn off Vista's indexing, which means a competitor must add a second indexer that slows down a PC. Google spokesman Ricardo Reyes confirmed the company's charge against Microsoft Monday. Microsoft is disputing Google's charges and said that it has worked closely with federal officials to ensure its Vista OS, released to consumers in January, fosters rather than inhibits competition in the area of desktop search. Users can disable Vista's desktop search service, but the company has not made it simple for them to do so, acknowledged Jack Evans, a Microsoft spokesman. He said this is because the company designed Vista's desktop search specifically "to not affect performance and back off any other programs running" -- including any third-party desktop search software -- in a way that should resolve any claims of anticompetitive behavior, Evans said. Andrew Brust, chief, new technology of consulting firm Twentysix New York, said he used Google's desktop search when it first came out but switched to Microsoft's product when it became available for Windows XP because he preferred it. "Microsoft chose to integrate into Windows, whereas Google decided to be browser-based," he said. "Plus, at least back then, Google installed its own local Web server as part of the product and I really didn't like all that baggage. Microsoft's was just more useful." Brust, who has used Vista in beta form, said integrating desktop search into Vista is "common sense" and suggested that Google's complaints might be sour grapes over Microsoft's own antitrust charges against the search vendor when it unveiled plans toÂ purchase online advertising and marketing powerhouse DoubleClick. Samir Bhavnani, research director for analyst firm Current Analysis West, said that Microsoft's integration of desktop search into Vista was a response to Apple's inclusion of desktop search in their Mac OS, not a move against Google. He said it wouldn't be fair for Google to accuse Microsoft of being anticompetitive without leveling the same charge at Apple. However, Helm contradicted this reasoning and said that Apple was not found in a U.S. court to have a monopoly on PC OSes, while Microsoft was in the DoJ case. "I don't have the impression that Google is worried about Apple," he said.
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SAN FRANCISCO--Google board member and investor John Doerr said Tuesday that despite speculation, the search giant would not enter in the Web browser market, but he predicted others would.