Japan Targets Google Over Alleged Search Monopoly on Android Devices
Japan's Fair Trade Commission has ordered Google, a unit of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), to cease certain business practices deemed anticompetitive under the nation's Antimonopoly Act.
The watchdog announced the order on Tuesday, stating that Google breached regulations tied to unfair trade behavior. The agency initially opened its investigation on October 23, 2023, and noted it coordinated with foreign regulators conducting similar probes into the company.
At the core of the inquiry was Google's arrangement with Android smartphone manufacturers. The company allegedly mandated that its search engine be given priority placement on mobile devices. This included requirements to preinstall Google Search and Chrome, along with placing their icons on the default home screen. Manufacturers were reportedly also restricted from altering Chrome's default search settings.
Additionally, the commission alleged Google provided financial incentives to manufacturers, offering ad revenue shares in return for not preloading competing search services. These agreements were said to ensure Google maintained dominance across general search functionalities.
Google has not yet commented publicly on the matter.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
3 hours ago
- Business Insider
Google's (GOOG) $32B Wiz Acquisition Faces DOJ Antitrust Hurdle
Alphabet's (GOOG) (GOOGL) $32 billion acquisition of cloud security startup Wiz is under antitrust review by the U.S. Department of Justice. The investigation is still in early stages, but it signals that regulators are taking a close look at how big tech companies are expanding into new markets. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Wiz provides tools to detect and block cybersecurity threats across cloud environments. The company collaborates with major platforms, including Amazon Web Services (AMZN), Microsoft Azure (MSFT), and Oracle (ORCL). Google says the deal will boost its cloud security offerings, an area where it's still trailing top competitors. Deal or No Deal? The DOJ's concern is whether this move could limit competition. Google already bought Mandiant for $5.4 billion in 2022. That deal went through, but the Wiz deal is much larger and comes at a time when the DOJ is more aggressive on tech mergers. The risk is that Google could start bundling key security features into its own cloud stack, potentially locking out competitors. Regulators are already pushing back on Alphabet's dominance in online search and advertising. In two recent court rulings, judges found that the company operated illegal monopolies in both areas. The company now faces the threat of forced divestitures, including parts of its ad tech business and the Chrome browser. This adds pressure to the Wiz deal. If blocked, Wiz stands to collect a $3.2 billion breakup fee, or 10% of the deal value. That size indicates the level of regulatory risk and how strongly Google wants to close. The outcome could shape the future of tech M&A. If regulators succeed in stopping one of the largest cybersecurity deals ever, it may raise the bar for any future acquisitions by Alphabet, Amazon, or Microsoft. Procedure Could Take Months Under the Biden administration, regulators took a hard stance on mergers and monopolies. The FTC, led by Lina Khan, became known for aggressively challenging big tech deals. That changed after President Trump returned to office and removed Khan earlier this year. Many expected a slowdown in antitrust enforcement. The DOJ's decision to probe the Wiz deal defies those expectations, signaling that cloud-related consolidation may still draw scrutiny. Investors should closely monitor the development of this case. A green light could boost confidence in Google Cloud's expansion strategy. A block could trigger more scrutiny on other big tech players trying to grow by acquisition, not just innovation. The deal is expected to face months of review. Whether it closes or not may hinge less on market logic and more on how Washington defines fair competition in the cloud era. Is GOOG a Strong Buy? an average GOOG stock price target of $200.46. This implies a 13.98% upside.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Google, Meta and Snap think this tech is the next big thing
Silicon Valley thinks it's finally found the next big thing in tech: smart glasses – the same thing Google tried (and failed at) more than a decade ago. But Google Glass may simply have been ahead of its time. Now tech companies believe technology has finally caught up, thanks in part to artificial intelligence—and they're going all-in on truly 'smart' glasses that can see and answer questions about the world around you. The latest example: Snap announced this past week it's building AI-equipped eyewear to be released in 2026. The renewed buzz around smart glasses is likely the combination of two trends: a realization that smartphones are no longer exciting enough to entice users to upgrade often and a desire to capitalize on AI by building new hardware around it. That's why, although smart glasses aren't entirely new, advancements in AI could make them far more useful than the first time around. Emerging AI models can process images, video and speech simultaneously, answer complicated requests and respond conversationally. And that could make smart glasses finally worth wearing. 'AI is making these devices a lot easier to use, and it's also introducing new ways people can use them,' said Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager covering wearable devices for market research firm The International Data Corporation. Google, Snap, Meta and Amazon have previously released glasses with cameras, speakers and voice assistants. But the Google Glass of a decade ago never caught on. The screen was tiny, the battery life was short and the 'glasses' themselves were expensive and unfashionable. More modern glasses like Amazon's Echo Frames, Meta's original Ray-Ban Stories and early versions of Snap's Spectacles made it easier to listen to music or take photos hands-free. Yet these still didn't do anything you couldn't already do with a smartphone. This newer crop of smart glasses is far more sophisticated. For example, when I tried prototype glasses based on Google's software last year, I asked Google's Gemini assistant to provide cocktail ideas based on liquor bottles I had been looking at on a shelf. The glasses will also remember what you've seen and answer questions based on that: During its I/O developers conference in May, a Google employee asked Gemini for the name of a coffee shop printed on a cup she has looked at earlier. With the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, users can perform tasks like asking whether a pepper they're looking at in a grocery store is spicy or translate conversations between languages in real time. Two million pairs have been sold since their 2023 debut, Ray-Ban parent company EssilorLuxottica said in February. 'There's been several years of various failed attempts,' said Andrew Zignani, senior research director of ABI Research's Strategic Technologies team. 'But there's finally now some good concepts of what's working.' And market research indicates the interest will be there this time. The smart glasses market is estimated to grow from 3.3 million units shipped in 2024 to nearly 13 million by 2026, according to ABI Research. The International Data Corporation projects the market for smart glasses like those made by Meta will grow from 8.8 in 2025 to nearly 14 million in 2026. Snap didn't reveal many details about its forthcoming 'Specs' glasses but did say they will 'understand the world around you. 'The tiny smartphone limited our imagination,' Snap wrote in a blog post announcing the glasses. 'It forced us to look down at a screen, instead of up at the world.' Apple is also said to be working on smart glasses to be released next year that would compete directly with Meta's, according to Bloomberg. Amazon's head of devices and services Panos Panay also didn't rule out the possibility of camera-equipped Alexa glasses similar to those offered by Meta in a February CNN interview. 'But I think you can imagine, there's going to be a whole slew of AI devices that are coming,' he said in February. AI assistant apps, like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Search and Gemini apps, are already laying the foundation for smart glasses by using your phone's camera to answer questions about your surroundings. OpenAI is putting its tech in everything from a mysterious new gadget co-designed by Apple veteran Jony Ive to future Mattel toys. Google said last month that it would bring more camera use to its search app, a sign that it sees this technology as being key to the way people find information in the future. Apple this past week announced updates to its Visual Intelligence tool that let users ask questions about content on their iPhone's screen, in addition to their surroundings, by using its camera. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently reiterated his belief that smart glasses could become critical to how people use technology during testimony in a federal antitrust case. 'A big bet that we have at the company is that a lot of the way that people interact with content in the future is going to be increasingly through different AI mediums, and eventually through smart glasses and holograms,' he said in April. Still, tech giants need to get regular people to buy in. This includes potential privacy concerns, which played a big role in Google Glass' demise. Recording video with camera-equipped glasses is more subtle than holding up your phone, although Meta and Google's glasses have a light on the front to let other people know when a wearer is capturing content. Perhaps the biggest challenge will be convincing consumers that they need yet another tech device in their life, particularly those who don't need prescription glasses. The products need to be worth wearing on people's faces all day. And these devices likely won't come cheap. Meta's Ray-Bans usually cost around $300, roughly the price of a smartwatch. While that's not nearly as expensive as the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro headset, it still may be a tough sell as people spend less on ancillary tech products. Global smartwatch shipments fell for the first time in March, according to Counterpoint Research, perhaps a sign that customers aren't spending as much on devices they may not view as essential. Yet tech firms are willing to make that bet to avoid missing out on what could be the next blockbuster tech product. 'Many in the industry believe that the smartphone will eventually be replaced by glasses or something similar to it,' said Ubrani the IDC analyst. 'It's not going to happen today. It's going to happen many years from now, and all these companies want to make sure that they're not going to miss out on that change.'
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
2 Top Tech Stocks That Could Help Make You a Millionaire
Amazon's durable growth should help it generate strong returns over the long haul. Alphabet's cheap present valuation and its innovative history make it a buy today. 10 stocks we like better than Amazon › Building a retirement portfolio that's worth a million dollars is not an insurmountable task. All it takes is a few decades of consistently adding relatively reasonable amounts of money to a diversified stock portfolio every month. If, for example, your portfolio's value is $50,000 today, and you add $200 a month to it steadily from here, it will be worth over $1 million in 30 years, assuming an average rate of return of 10% annually. And that's not an unreasonable assumption -- that's been the market's average annualized rate of return over the long haul. If you have savings sitting in your bank account earning close to zero in interest, perhaps this can be an inspiration to start up that investment account. The best time to begin was yesterday; the second best time to begin is now. But what stocks should you buy for your portfolio? To generate solid long-term returns, you cannot go wrong with some technology giants that are trading today at reasonable prices. Here's why Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) can help lift your portfolio's value past the $1 million mark by the time you retire. Steady growth has been the name of the game at Amazon, and that has made it a monster stock to own over the last few decades. The company has a dominant position in e-commerce in the United States -- and a few other countries as well -- while simultaneously leading the global cloud computing market with its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division. E-commerce still has plenty of market share it can steal from physical retail, even in Amazon's home country. E-commerce as a percentage of total retail sales in the United States sat at just 16.2% as of the first quarter of 2025. Despite Amazon's large presence and popularity, online shopping does not account for even $1 out of every $5 spent at retail. While e-commerce's share will not ever approach 100% due to items like fresh groceries -- although Amazon and others are working hard to deliver these, too -- e-commerce should become a much larger piece of the pie in the years to come. Amazon's North American retail sales grew by 8% year over year last quarter, while international sales grew 8% as well when factoring out foreign currency fluctuations. Those revenues could easily keep growing at similar rates for years. AWS grew by an even faster 17%. The cloud computing segment is now generating over $100 billion in revenue and experiencing supercharged growth due to the rising demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure. A study by research firm Roots Analysis forecast that the cloud computing market will grow at a 15% annualized rate through 2035, providing a nice tailwind for this business. Today, Amazon's market capitalization is around $2.2 trillion, and it generated $72 billion in operating income over its last four reported quarters. With durable growth still left to be had in both e-commerce and cloud computing, Amazon can deliver strong returns for your portfolio over the long term. Investors have some doubts about Alphabet today -- they're worried about new competition eating its lunch. The tech giant that owns Google Search, Google Cloud, YouTube, Waymo, and Google DeepMind has seen its stock price growth lag behind its peers; it now trades at a price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 20, much lower than the competition. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) powerhouse OpenAI is closing in on $10 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and is aggressively trying to steal market share from Google Search. So far, the things that are worrying investors have not had a discernible impact on Alphabet's financial statements. Google Search revenue grew to $50.7 billion last quarter, helping to lift its overall revenue by 14% year over year on a currency-neutral basis. OpenAI and its ChatGPT large language model are definitely competitors to Alphabet, but the tech giant is fighting back hard: Its Google AI tools are getting strong usage, and its Gemini chatbot is catching up with ChatGPT in usage, according to surveys. Plus, Alphabet has become far more than just Google Search. Its Google Cloud unit has been set up for success in the AI era due to the company's immense long-term investments in infrastructure to support AI systems. In fact, it's doing so well at deploying AI capacity that OpenAI has signed a deal with Google Cloud for its computing needs. In addition, YouTube is growing and increasing the share of video-viewing time it accounts for in the United States, while autonomous driving subsidiary Waymo is expanding its robotaxi service across the country and beginning to disrupt the ride-sharing market. Even if Alphabet struggles in AI and cedes some revenue to OpenAI and other rivals, it has many ways to grow its revenue and earnings over the long haul, especially with Google Cloud. That division has closed in on $50 billion in annualized revenue and is growing by 28% year over year. Within five years, investors should expect the division to generate well over $100 billion in revenue annually and contribute significantly to Alphabet's profits. At a cheap P/E ratio of 20 and with a history of technological innovations, strong revenue growth, and magnificent earnings power, Alphabet stock looks like a great long-term bet for your portfolio. Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Amazon wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $653,702!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $870,207!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 988% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Brett Schafer has positions in Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 2 Top Tech Stocks That Could Help Make You a Millionaire was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
