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AAPL & GOOG's Antitrust Charge
Highlights include Apple, Inc. (AAPL - Analyst Report), Google, Inc. (GOOG - Analyst Report), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT - Snapshot Report), IBM Corp. (IBM - Analyst Report) and E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (DD - Analyst Report).
The press has reported that Apple, Inc. (AAPL - Analyst Report) and Google, Inc. (GOOG - Analyst Report) are under investigation on anti-trust grounds (violation of the Clayton Act) due to interlocking boards of directors. There is a very simple solution -- the directors in question (Eric Schmidt and Arthur Levinson) should resign from their questionable boards.
However, Google is under fire on a number of counts, much as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT - Snapshot Report) is, IBM Corp. (IBM - Analyst Report) was years ago and Du Pont (DD - Analyst Report) before that, merely because it has such a large market share in the eyes of the bureaucracy. It should be remembered that market dominance is not grounds for an anti-trust ruling. It is only when the company in question uses that dominance to prevent competition that anti-trust comes into play. There are other search engines -- do a search on Google ((:)) for a list (51,800,000 results).
Apple has a large market share in MP3 players, but is certainly not dominant. The iPhone has a small market share of the overall cellular phone market. Apple computers have less than 10% market share of all PCs. It is unlikely that Apple would ever enter the search engine software market. So Apple is not the target.
The press has reported that Apple, Inc. (AAPL - Analyst Report) and Google, Inc. (GOOG - Analyst Report) are under investigation on anti-trust grounds (violation of the Clayton Act) due to interlocking boards of directors. There is a very simple solution -- the directors in question (Eric Schmidt and Arthur Levinson) should resign from their questionable boards.
However, Google is under fire on a number of counts, much as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT - Snapshot Report) is, IBM Corp. (IBM - Analyst Report) was years ago and Du Pont (DD - Analyst Report) before that, merely because it has such a large market share in the eyes of the bureaucracy. It should be remembered that market dominance is not grounds for an anti-trust ruling. It is only when the company in question uses that dominance to prevent competition that anti-trust comes into play. There are other search engines -- do a search on Google ((:)) for a list (51,800,000 results).
Apple has a large market share in MP3 players, but is certainly not dominant. The iPhone has a small market share of the overall cellular phone market. Apple computers have less than 10% market share of all PCs. It is unlikely that Apple would ever enter the search engine software market. So Apple is not the target.