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This seems like it is Google preparing itself for a future where it will almost certainly be hit with the antitrust hammer here in the US. Google has been getti

by wyattk 9y ago

This seems like it is Google preparing itself for a future where it will almost certainly be hit with the antitrust hammer here in the US. Google has been getting increasing pressure from the EU [1]. It, at least in the public's eye, has been showing more monopolistic behavior and getting more attention, like discussed here [2]. There has been talk of Amazon and Facebook facing similar antitrust issues in the future too, but those seem to be quieter. The future is uncertain, but this will sure be interesting. 1: http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/27/technology/business/google-eu-antitrust-fine/index.html http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/27/technology/business/google-e... 2: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/us/politics/eric-schmidt-google-new-america.html?mcubz=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/us/politics/eric-schmidt-...

zrail 9y ago
Seems likely. This way if/when Google LLC gets hit by massive antitrust fines the rest of the Alphabet subsidiaries will be insulated.
- ma2rten 9y ago
  Why does it matter?
- tryingagainbro 9y ago
  the rest of the Alphabet subsidiaries will be insulated. they already are...relatively speaking they make no money.
- throwaway40483 9y ago
  This would make sense if the other entities were actually making, which they don't. Cut the ties to Google and everything else dies.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  Since Google makes all the money, that's the opposite of the important direction of insulation. This way if one of the other bets incurs massive liabilities, Google's assets and income streams are insulated.
ikeboy 9y ago
If the fines are for behavior during the time they were together I don't see any separation now being worth the paper it's written on.
- Tuna-Fish 9y ago
  They are not trying to avoid fines, they want to prepare for the possibility that the company will be forced to split into multiple (truly) independent entities. When the split is done carefully beforehand, the loss to shareholders is minimized compared to a much more abrupt split done by a court of law.
  - robbiep 9y ago
    Another way to look at it is now it's easy to divest some of those entities
  - ikeboy 9y ago
    The parent links to an EU article about fines and another sibling comment said it would help protect against fines.
  - ma2rten 9y ago
    If there was a split it would be inside Google, not splitting Google from other bets.
  - theduncan 9y ago
    If they were going to do this, they would have pulled the advertising out of google. This would drop what Google makes, but would also reduce what Google can be fined in the EU. *edit, I mean the legal entity that sells the ads. DoubleClick, adsense,...
diogenescynic 9y ago
During the Trump administration? Not likely. Even Obama didn't take action like that, so I can't see republicans or Trump doing it.
- usefulcat 9y ago
  Trump has at most 8 years, barring another constitutional amendment. I can believe that Google is looking further than that.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  Republicans and Trump are much less friendly to Google, even if less generally inclined to anti-trust vigor,
godzillabrennus 9y ago
When the drama unfolded over the James Damore manifesto I recognized immediately what would unfold next in our cold civil war. The folks who work at Google may have been appeased but it served as a lighting rod to gather those who oppose the culture in urban areas like Silicon Valley. I think it's very likely we will now see an accelerated push from the Trump administration and conservatives to break up the big firms in Silicon Valley. I hope I'm wrong.
- yellowapple 9y ago
  They're overdue for a bit of regulatory shaking, even amid the ironic circumstances.
- theWatcher37 9y ago
  I'll take a stab at it. Internet search has evolved past that of a free market entity; search is now a public utility as much as power and water. You can't imagine a neighborhood without power and water. You can't imagine the internet without search. Google today is like the AT&T of old. When we bust it up the goal should be power-utility-like entities (bland, unbiased, purely functional entities with mostly technical oversight and immunity from liability)
  - Klathmon 9y ago
    We can't even get internet access regulated as a public utility in the US despite many begging for it, hell we can't even keep internet access neutral! There's no way that a tool used on the internet would become one.
    - Toboe 9y ago
      > There's no way that a tool used on the internet would become one. Said tool pissed of the party that is most strongly associated with "never regulate!".
phreeza 9y ago
Does any of the subsidiaries except for Google turn a profit though?
jedberg 9y ago
I think it's the reverse. I think it's so that in the future when one of their self driving cars has an accident and kills someone, they are only liable for however much money that division has, and not all of Google.
flexie 9y ago
Google used to be this unique company that again and again would launch exciting new services or products. Often it was services that helped them sell ads, but it was services that users found very helpful. Gmail, Google Translate, Google Map, Google Earth, Chrome, Android. These were all unique in their own way when they came out and found hundreds of millions (mostly free or low paying) users. But what is the one thing or service that you use from Google which was launched in the last 5 years and are widely used? Nothing. What is the one thing that they charge for, except advertising, and that scores of people care to pay for? Nothing. Sure, there have been ongoing improvements of their services and lots of tools, languages and frameworks released for developers. They have been testing self driving cars and there have been rumours about what they do in their lab. There have been laptops, glasses and loudspeakers, but none of them have really been successful or close to be considered market leaders. Apparently, it's really difficult for one of the richest companies in history with tens of thousands of the most talented engineers, to market just one new product every few year. Was there ever in history so much money gathered so easily by such an amazing force of engineers? Even within software services that you would think a global company with the largest user base ever, and millions of paying webshops, could dominate; Why is Google not a leader in payment technology? Why are they not dominating hosting services? Why are they not dominating cloud storage? Why don't we buy content such as books, news, movies or songs on Google? Shared economy? Social networks? Why are they not dominating anything else but a few software services that help them sell their core product, the ads? Google can make such huge amounts of much money selling ads, that everything else is dwarfed in comparison. How could you ever get the attention of management for a project that could potentially - if everything goes well for 5-10 years - make 5 billion in revenue, when Google makes more than that in a month right now? Not despite of their money but because of their money, Google cannot innovate. Take 1,000 Google engineers elsewhere and they could do amazing things. Have them in Google, and the world would barely notice if they all called in sick for the next 10 years. Maybe Google's restructuring will help on this. I doubt it, unless the umbilical cord to all the advertisement money is cut completely. Size matters. Google has gotten way too big.
- zachkatz 9y ago
  Reminds me of a certain military industrial complex...
dragonwriter 9y ago
Its Alphabet giving its non-Google businesses the ability to take risks and fail without jeopardizing each other and, especially, Google. It gives them much greater freedom to innovate.
trapperkeeper74 9y ago
Yup. Instead of a corporate inversion, it's a corporate dispersion.

by wyattk 9y ago

zrail 9y ago

Seems likely. This way if/when Google LLC gets hit by massive antitrust fines the rest of the Alphabet subsidiaries will be insulated.

ma2rten 9y ago
Why does it matter?
tryingagainbro 9y ago
the rest of the Alphabet subsidiaries will be insulated. they already are...relatively speaking they make no money.
throwaway40483 9y ago
This would make sense if the other entities were actually making, which they don't. Cut the ties to Google and everything else dies.
dragonwriter 9y ago
Since Google makes all the money, that's the opposite of the important direction of insulation. This way if one of the other bets incurs massive liabilities, Google's assets and income streams are insulated.

ikeboy 9y ago

If the fines are for behavior during the time they were together I don't see any separation now being worth the paper it's written on.

Tuna-Fish 9y ago
They are not trying to avoid fines, they want to prepare for the possibility that the company will be forced to split into multiple (truly) independent entities. When the split is done carefully beforehand, the loss to shareholders is minimized compared to a much more abrupt split done by a court of law.
- robbiep 9y ago
  Another way to look at it is now it's easy to divest some of those entities
- ikeboy 9y ago
  The parent links to an EU article about fines and another sibling comment said it would help protect against fines.
- ma2rten 9y ago
  If there was a split it would be inside Google, not splitting Google from other bets.
- theduncan 9y ago
  If they were going to do this, they would have pulled the advertising out of google. This would drop what Google makes, but would also reduce what Google can be fined in the EU. *edit, I mean the legal entity that sells the ads. DoubleClick, adsense,...

diogenescynic 9y ago

During the Trump administration? Not likely. Even Obama didn't take action like that, so I can't see republicans or Trump doing it.

usefulcat 9y ago
Trump has at most 8 years, barring another constitutional amendment. I can believe that Google is looking further than that.
dragonwriter 9y ago
Republicans and Trump are much less friendly to Google, even if less generally inclined to anti-trust vigor,

godzillabrennus 9y ago

When the drama unfolded over the James Damore manifesto I recognized immediately what would unfold next in our cold civil war. The folks who work at Google may have been appeased but it served as a lighting rod to gather those who oppose the culture in urban areas like Silicon Valley. I think it's very likely we will now see an accelerated push from the Trump administration and conservatives to break up the big firms in Silicon Valley. I hope I'm wrong.

yellowapple 9y ago
They're overdue for a bit of regulatory shaking, even amid the ironic circumstances.
theWatcher37 9y ago
I'll take a stab at it. Internet search has evolved past that of a free market entity; search is now a public utility as much as power and water. You can't imagine a neighborhood without power and water. You can't imagine the internet without search. Google today is like the AT&T of old. When we bust it up the goal should be power-utility-like entities (bland, unbiased, purely functional entities with mostly technical oversight and immunity from liability)
- Klathmon 9y ago
  We can't even get internet access regulated as a public utility in the US despite many begging for it, hell we can't even keep internet access neutral! There's no way that a tool used on the internet would become one.
  - Toboe 9y ago
    > There's no way that a tool used on the internet would become one. Said tool pissed of the party that is most strongly associated with "never regulate!".

phreeza 9y ago

Does any of the subsidiaries except for Google turn a profit though?

jedberg 9y ago

I think it's the reverse. I think it's so that in the future when one of their self driving cars has an accident and kills someone, they are only liable for however much money that division has, and not all of Google.

flexie 9y ago

Google used to be this unique company that again and again would launch exciting new services or products. Often it was services that helped them sell ads, but it was services that users found very helpful. Gmail, Google Translate, Google Map, Google Earth, Chrome, Android. These were all unique in their own way when they came out and found hundreds of millions (mostly free or low paying) users. But what is the one thing or service that you use from Google which was launched in the last 5 years and are widely used? Nothing. What is the one thing that they charge for, except advertising, and that scores of people care to pay for? Nothing. Sure, there have been ongoing improvements of their services and lots of tools, languages and frameworks released for developers. They have been testing self driving cars and there have been rumours about what they do in their lab. There have been laptops, glasses and loudspeakers, but none of them have really been successful or close to be considered market leaders. Apparently, it's really difficult for one of the richest companies in history with tens of thousands of the most talented engineers, to market just one new product every few year. Was there ever in history so much money gathered so easily by such an amazing force of engineers? Even within software services that you would think a global company with the largest user base ever, and millions of paying webshops, could dominate; Why is Google not a leader in payment technology? Why are they not dominating hosting services? Why are they not dominating cloud storage? Why don't we buy content such as books, news, movies or songs on Google? Shared economy? Social networks? Why are they not dominating anything else but a few software services that help them sell their core product, the ads? Google can make such huge amounts of much money selling ads, that everything else is dwarfed in comparison. How could you ever get the attention of management for a project that could potentially - if everything goes well for 5-10 years - make 5 billion in revenue, when Google makes more than that in a month right now? Not despite of their money but because of their money, Google cannot innovate. Take 1,000 Google engineers elsewhere and they could do amazing things. Have them in Google, and the world would barely notice if they all called in sick for the next 10 years. Maybe Google's restructuring will help on this. I doubt it, unless the umbilical cord to all the advertisement money is cut completely. Size matters. Google has gotten way too big.

zachkatz 9y ago
Reminds me of a certain military industrial complex...

dragonwriter 9y ago

Its Alphabet giving its non-Google businesses the ability to take risks and fail without jeopardizing each other and, especially, Google. It gives them much greater freedom to innovate.

trapperkeeper74 9y ago

Yup. Instead of a corporate inversion, it's a corporate dispersion.