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Right, money is an advantage and big companies generally have lots of money. The point is Google is not unique in that regard.

by ng12 10y ago

Retric 10y ago
They are actually a massive outlier. http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/05/20/apple-microsoft-google-cisco-oracle-hold-cash-moodys-report/ http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/05/20/apple-microsoft-google... While Apple has a larger total cash horde ~(216 billion) only 7% of that is in the US or 15B, Google has a larger US cash horde @$73B * 31% = 22.6B making it the largest accessible cash horde in the US. PS: The ~$1.68 trillion in cash held by U.S. companies at the end of 2015 is kind of misleading as financial companies are required to hold cash on hand and thus can't use it for R&D or they are keeping money out of the US while waiting for a Tax holiday under Trump or possibly some other administration.
- ng12 10y ago
  I'm not saying that Google doesn't compete on their cash reserves, I'm saying "so what"? Does having a lot of capital make you a monopoly? Should we penalize business for having cash to spend?
  - Retric 10y ago
    Look at it from the other direction. I am saying one of the downsides of monopolies is they end up with a lot of capital, but they don't use it efficiently. At the core investing capital efficiently is a different skill. Another way to look at it is after breaking up AT&T it created a lot of horribly dysfunctional companies. Verizon is a long way from greatness, but many of these guys where far worse and then went out of business because they where inefficient. Remember, it was the same people, tech, and business models before and after the breakup, but busting up AT&T exposed problems to market forces which then went away. I am fine saying the rot has yet to set in at Google. But, give it 20 years and expect the same kind of problems because of human nature. PS: Granted, this does not really answer your so what, but efficiency in the long term really is a boon to society.

Right, money is an advantage and big companies generally have lots of money. The point is Google is not unique in that regard.

by ng12 10y ago

Right, money is an advantage and big companies generally have lots of money. The point is Google is not unique in that regard.

Retric 10y ago

They are actually a massive outlier. http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/05/20/apple-microsoft-google-cisco-oracle-hold-cash-moodys-report/ http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/05/20/apple-microsoft-google... While Apple has a larger total cash horde ~(216 billion) only 7% of that is in the US or 15B, Google has a larger US cash horde @$73B * 31% = 22.6B making it the largest accessible cash horde in the US. PS: The ~$1.68 trillion in cash held by U.S. companies at the end of 2015 is kind of misleading as financial companies are required to hold cash on hand and thus can't use it for R&D or they are keeping money out of the US while waiting for a Tax holiday under Trump or possibly some other administration.

ng12 10y ago
I'm not saying that Google doesn't compete on their cash reserves, I'm saying "so what"? Does having a lot of capital make you a monopoly? Should we penalize business for having cash to spend?
- Retric 10y ago
  Look at it from the other direction. I am saying one of the downsides of monopolies is they end up with a lot of capital, but they don't use it efficiently. At the core investing capital efficiently is a different skill. Another way to look at it is after breaking up AT&T it created a lot of horribly dysfunctional companies. Verizon is a long way from greatness, but many of these guys where far worse and then went out of business because they where inefficient. Remember, it was the same people, tech, and business models before and after the breakup, but busting up AT&T exposed problems to market forces which then went away. I am fine saying the rot has yet to set in at Google. But, give it 20 years and expect the same kind of problems because of human nature. PS: Granted, this does not really answer your so what, but efficiency in the long term really is a boon to society.