antitrust

Is Adding Google+ to Search a Red Flag for Regulators?

Lindsy Embree — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:41:27 -0500

Full article: GigaOM
Mathew Ingram
Google launched a significant overhaul to its search results, one the company called "Search plus Your World." The new features fully integrate Google+ profiles, photos, comments and other content into Google's main search -- something the company clearly thinks is an improvement. But not everyone agrees: Twitter, for example, released a statement saying it is concerned that the move will give content from Google's own social network unfair prominence. The search giant may have just given antitrust regulators even more ammunition to use against it.

Media Minutes: December 23, 2011

Candace Clement — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:19:46 -0500

Wireless users got an early holiday present this week when the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile collapsed. But Verizon’s proposed spectrum deal with several cable companies is a big lump of coal for consumers. And the 12th annual radio program, Calls from Home, is airing the voices of family members sending holiday greetings to incarcerated loved ones.

Whether Google Is a Monopoly Isn't the Point

Lindsy Embree — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:50:49 -0400

Full article: GigaOM
Mathew Ingram
Much has been made of Google chairman Eric Schmidt's admission that the Web giant might be a monopoly, during his testimony before a Senate hearing into Google's market dominance and its effect on consumers and the marketplace. But despite the howls of outrage at Google's size and dominance in the search market, the fact remains that -- for the purposes of U.S. antitrust law at least -- being a monopoly isn't illegal.

Congress Doesn't Get Google, and It Doesn't Get Congress

Lindsy Embree — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:14:47 -0400

Full article: GigaOM
Stacey Higginbotham
Is Google evil? Members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights tried to decide that in a hearing investigating whether Google's market power is beneficial for consumers or not. While the hearing exposed some questionable results on Google searches -- notably product searches -- it also exposed a lack of clarity around who Google's customers are, and a fundamental conflict of cultures between Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C.

Why a Google Antitrust Investigation Is a Mistake

Lindsy Embree — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:54:55 -0400

Full article: GigaOM
Mathew Ingram
After years of suspicion and finger-pointing by competitors and would-be competitors, Google is finally coming under the scrutiny of federal antitrust regulators, with a Senate committee hearing scheduled to begin Sept. 21 in Washington. Yet subjecting Google to an antitrust inquisition is likely to be a massive waste of time and effort.

AT&T and T-Mobile: What Happened and What Happens Next

Stevie Converse — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:43:42 -0400

Full article: Public Knowledge
Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn and Legal Director Harold Feld discuss why the Department of Justice decided to challenge the AT&T-T-Mobile merger and what happens now. (Video 3:52)

AT&T Spent 30 Percent More on Lobbying for T-Mobile

Stevie Converse — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:52:27 -0400

Full article: Bloomberg
Todd Shields and Jonathan Salant
The Justice Department's move to block AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile USA marks a rare Washington defeat for the largest U.S. phone company, a failure that deal opponents called a triumph of antitrust analysis over lobbying muscle. As it sought regulators' blessing for the transaction, AT&T boosted lobbying spending by 30 percent, to $11.7 million, in the first six months of 2011, vs. the same period last year.

Protecting Innovation and Competition

Stevie Converse — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:32:20 -0400

Full article: New York Times
The Justice Department’s antitrust division rightly concluded that T-Mobile's cheaper service would be one of the first victims of a merger with AT&T. Allowing the number of national service providers to shrink to three posed too great a risk to development of wireless computing, slowing innovation on the frontier of information technology. The Justice Department’s decision was the right one for consumers and technology.

Sprint: AT&T/T-Mobile Merger Would Destroy Jobs, Here’s A Study To Prove It

Stevie Converse — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:11:40 -0400

Full article: TechCrunch
Sprint has thrown its weight behind a study which debunks claims made by AT&T and the Economic Policy Institute that this merger will create "tens of thousands of jobs," and even goes so far as to say the deal will result in a reduction of American jobs.

New Jobs Study Confirms AT&T–T-Mobile Merger Would Put Thousands on the Unemployment Line

Stevie Converse — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:05:00 -0400

Full article: Free Press
In the wake of the Department of Justice's lawsuit to block the AT&T–T-Mobile merger, a new study of the impact the merger would have on jobs confirmed Free Press' assertion that combining AT&T and T-Mobile would kill thousands of American jobs. The study, conducted by University of California-Irvine Professor David Neumark, a respected economist, and commissioned by Sprint, debunks AT&T’s claims that the deal would create jobs.