William Gallagher
The forthcoming antitrust proposal by the US House of Representatives is being called a "thinly veiled call to break up" large technology firms including Apple, Google, and Facebook.
Following the US House of Representative's final hearing on the topic of big tech antitrust, a draft response claims that the as-yet unreleased proposals call for the breakup of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google.
According to Reuters, Republican Congressman Ken Buck has responded to the forthcoming report, criticizing its main conclusions. "This proposal is a thinly veiled call to break up Big Tech firms," he wrote. "We do not agree with the majority's approach."
While Buck writes that he agrees with concerns about Big Tech, he objects to the report's plan to require companies to delineate a clear "single line of business." He reportedly points out that Amazon, for example, runs both its ecommerce store and the separate but hugely successful Amazon Cloud Services.
"The report offers a chilling look into how Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook have used their power to control how we see and understand the world," continued Buck. "[However] these potential changes need not be dramatic to be effective."
The House antitrust subcommittee is expected to publish its report before October 9. Any road to break-up will take years, and may not happen, depending on political will going forward.
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Amber Neely
29 Comments
Omg gimme a break....as if they’ve got the business experience to make that recommendation. Most of us are honestly so blessed and lucky to even have Apple as an investor and American. Just Zip it and write some good laws.
US Government getting into non-government business affairs is how they screw them up. Leave them alone. Once upon time Bell/AT&T,Kodak,Standard oil,etc,etc were big and could have expanded globally but look at where they are today.. Even threatening to break up restricts their ability to invest,grow and compete globally especially against Chinese companies where Chinese government continuously help beyond normal instead of hurting them. To compete against larger global competitors, you have to be big in size and balance sheet.
This is when it would be good to have someone like Steve Jobs around. He would rip these guys new assholes. So much so, they couldn’t sit for weeks. Perhaps this is simply extortion to pad their accounts.
Just make them pay fair taxes in US. I’m thinking at least 30% just as Apple charges for the AppStore
Have to wait and see what the recommendations actually consist of, but the earlier references to Glass-Steagall and comments about "platform owners not competing on the platform" make me think they were headed down the wrong path. I think it's going to be difficult to nail down a definition of a "clear line of business" for technology firms that will hold up to court challenges. Technology is more complicated than banking. Plus, you have public opinion to consider as well. I'm sure there are things the public would like to see addressed, but it's hard to view it as a front burner issue compared to other issues that effect people's lives and rights in a democracy.