The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is preparing an investigation of Google Inc’s dominance of the Internet search industry by alerting high-tech companies to gather information for the probe, three people familiar with the matter said.
The agency told the companies it plans to issue so-called civil investigative demands for the information, said the people, who requested anonymity because the FTC hasn’t made the matter public. The demands are similar to subpoenas.
The FTC, which has been considering a broad investigation, waited until the US Department of Justice concluded its own review of Mountain View, California-based Google’s acquisition of ITA Software Inc, two people familiar with the matter said last month.
The justice department on April 9 approved Google’s US$700 million purchase of ITA on the condition it makes travel data available to search-engine rivals and lets the government review complaints that it’s acting unfairly.
An FTC investigation “has the potential to be very significant,” Eleanor Fox, a law professor at New York University, said.
“It could be ‘Google as the next Microsoft,’” Fox said, referring to the justice department probe and lawsuit settlement involving the Redmond, Washington-based software maker.
The final judgment in the Microsoft case expires next month.
Google is facing growing scrutiny from regulators as it bolsters its search business. Officials in Texas and the European Commission have started investigations into Google’s search dominance, while Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine- is considering such a probe.
The FTC in February hired Timothy Wu (吳修銘), an information industries academic, who said in an interview last week that dominant Internet companies should be barred from monopolizing more than one market.
The FTC also recently tapped Edward Felten, known for cracking the music industry’s digital-copyright protection code, to be the agency’s technology chief.
Thomas Rosch, one of five FTC commissioners, said in an interview last month he supported a probe of the dominant players in the Internet-search industry, without specifying which companies.
Rosch is the only commissioner to say publicly that such an investigation is in order.
US Senator Herb Kohl, the Wisconsin Democrat who heads the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, has said he will examine Google’s business practices. US Senator Mike Lee of Utah, the panel’s senior Republican, has called for hearings.
Microsoft Corp, Kayak.com, Expedia Inc and other Google competitors banded together as FairSearch.org to oppose the acquisition of ITA Software, which makes software that provides data for online travel sites such as Orbitz Worldwide Inc. They said the deal would reduce competition and called on the justice department to impose conditions for the transaction.
An FTC investigation of Google “is long overdue,” said John Simpson, consumer advocate at Consumer Watchdog.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure