4 ms·

It's not the first time Germany is harassing Google, I remember the google street view thing and more. There are probably tons of companies not answering their

It's not the first time Germany is harassing Google, I remember the google street view thing and more. There are probably tons of companies not answering their email but they are targeting Google only because cash cow. So yeah, harassing in that sense. They're not the only country harassing a successful company to squeeze cash out of them, but Germany (and France) seems to have a sweet spot for Google.

jacquesm 12y ago
High trees catch a lot of wind. I personally far prefer they target the big companies which can easily afford to defend themselves if they feel they are wrongly targeted than the little guys which could be wrecked by such a lawsuit. So no, Google is not targeted because they are a cashcow, Google is targeted because they are large and ignore a bunch of law because they think they can get away with it because they are large. The simpler thing would be to simply comply with the law but they choose the confrontational road and rulings like these are the result. Companies are still not larger than nation states. Maybe one day they will be but for now the nation states seem to have the upper hand when it comes to enforcement.
- gizmo686 12y ago
  Based on wikipedia [1] Panama, the 89th highest gdp country (out of 193), has a gdp of $36 billion. Google has a gross annual profit of $38 billion [2] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomin... [2] http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Google_(GOOG)/Data/Gross_Profit http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Google_(GOOG)/Data/Gross_Prof...
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    Germany however is still two orders of magnitude away from parity with Google. And you'd probably have to see that $36B relative to the amount google makes in Germany. And then I doubt Google is larger than even Somalia.

jacquesm 12y ago

High trees catch a lot of wind. I personally far prefer they target the big companies which can easily afford to defend themselves if they feel they are wrongly targeted than the little guys which could be wrecked by such a lawsuit. So no, Google is not targeted because they are a cashcow, Google is targeted because they are large and ignore a bunch of law because they think they can get away with it because they are large. The simpler thing would be to simply comply with the law but they choose the confrontational road and rulings like these are the result. Companies are still not larger than nation states. Maybe one day they will be but for now the nation states seem to have the upper hand when it comes to enforcement.

gizmo686 12y ago
Based on wikipedia [1] Panama, the 89th highest gdp country (out of 193), has a gdp of $36 billion. Google has a gross annual profit of $38 billion [2] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomin... [2] http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Google_(GOOG)/Data/Gross_Profit http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Google_(GOOG)/Data/Gross_Prof...
- jacquesm 12y ago
  Germany however is still two orders of magnitude away from parity with Google. And you'd probably have to see that $36B relative to the amount google makes in Germany. And then I doubt Google is larger than even Somalia.