Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 23 March 2019
Europe fines Google $1.7 billion in antitrust case

By KELVIN CHAN and RAF pean operations, Google
CASERT should “begin to open up,
Associated Press become more transparent
BRUSSELS (AP) — Europe’s and possibly look to alter
antitrust regulators slapped some of its business prac-
Google with a big fine tices” worldwide.
Wednesday for the third Earlier this month, a British
time in less than two years, expert panel recommend-
ordering the tech giant to ed the government curb
pay 1.49 billion euros ($1.7 the dominance of giants
billion) for freezing out rivals like Facebook, Amazon
in the online advertising and Google. In the U.S.,
business. Democratic presidential
The ruling brings to nearly candidate Elizabeth War-
$10 billion the fines im- ren has proposed breaking
posed against Google by up the biggest American
the European Union. And it tech companies, accusing
comes at a time when big them of wielding too much
tech companies around power.
the world are facing in- This week, as part of a set-
creasing regulatory pres- tlement with the American
sure and fierce political Civil Liberties Union and
attacks over privacy viola- European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager speaks during a media conference at other activists, Facebook
tions, online misinformation, EU headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, March 20, 2019. agreed to overhaul its ad-
hate speech and other Associated Press targeting systems to pre-
abuses. Google inserted exclusivity seven years after Microsoft Google did not say wheth- vent discrimination in hous-
Still, the latest penalty isn’t clauses in its contracts that filed a complaint — though er it would appeal. ing, credit and employ-
likely to have much effect barred these websites from by that time, Google “We’ve already made a ment ads.
on Google’s business. It in- running similarly placed had already made some wide range of changes to The EU has led the way in
volves practices the com- ads sold by Google’s rivals. changes to give custom- our products to address the promoting tougher regula-
pany says it already end- As a result, advertisers and ers more freedom to show commission’s concerns,” tion of big tech companies.
ed, and the sum is just a website owners “had less competing ads. For that Google’s senior vice presi- Besides cracking down on
fraction of the $31 billion in choice and likely faced reason, regulators did not dent of global affairs, Kent antitrust breaches by Mi-
profit that its parent, Alpha- higher prices that would be require a specific remedy Walker, said in a statement. crosoft and Intel, it has en-
bet, made last year. passed on to consumers,” to restore competition. “Over the next few months, forced stricter data privacy
Alphabet stock rose 2 per- said the EU’s competition But Vestager said it ap- we’ll be making further up- rules that affect Facebook
cent on Wall Street on commissioner, Margrethe peared rivals haven’t been dates to give more visibility and other social media
Wednesday. Vestager. able to catch up, and to rivals in Europe.” companies.
The EU ruling applies to a Anyone who suffered some are “quite small.” E-marketing analyst Bill U.S. regulators haven’t
narrow portion of Google’s from Google’s behavior By contrast, the EU said, Fisher noted a “growing been as tough, though
ad business: when Google can seek compensation Google has more than 70 wave of sentiment” to- the Federal Trade Com-
sells ads next to Google through national courts, percent of the European ward curbing the influence mission recently created a
search results on third-party she said. market for selling ads that of Big Tech and said that task force focused on anti-
websites. EU regulators opened their run alongside search results even if the EU’s rulings ap- competitive behavior in
Investigators found that investigation in 2016 — on third-party websites. ply only to Google’s Euro- the industry.q

Digital scrapbooking site

Pinterest files for IPO

securities regulators earlier $756 million last year, a 60 according to PitchBook
this month by ride-hailing percent bump from 2017. It Data.
company Lyft in what is had a loss of $63 million last Pinterest has long shunned
shaping up to be a busy year, compared to a loss of being labeled a social net-
season for technology IPOs. $130 million in 2017. work. Because of that, it
Also expected to sell stock Pinterest allows people to doesn’t push users to add
to the public in the coming search for and “pin” imag- friends or build connec-
weeks: Lyft rival Uber and es as inspiration for fashion, tions. It also means it’s been
messaging app Slack. interior design, travel and able to avoid problems of
Pinterest said in its filing that more. its larger rivals like Face-
In this Oct. 11, 2018, file photo, Evan Sharp, Pinterest co-founder it intends to list itself on the The company said it has book.
and chief product officer, poses for a photo, standing beside New York Stock Exchange more than 250 million us- But despite the lack of friend
a wall of pegs symbolizing the company logo at Pinterest using the ticker symbol ers each month, and us- networks, many advertisers
headquarters in San Francisco. “PINS.” The company ers have saved more than likely still consider Pinterest
Associated Press hasn’t yet said how many 175 billion pins since the site to be part of their “social”
BY RACHEL LERMAN and on Wall Street, with the digi- shares it’s selling in the IPO was launched. budgets, said eMarketer
BARBARA ORTUTAY tal scrapbooking site on Fri- or how much money it in- Pinterest has raised nearly analyst Andrew Lipsman,
AP Technology Writers day filing for an initial public tends to raise. $1.5 billion in the private meaning it competes in
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — offering of stock. The San Francisco-based markets, and was last val- part with Facebook, Snap-
Pinterest is pinning its future It follows a similar filing with company had revenue of ued at $12.3 billion in 2017, chat and others.q