Google is still waiting to hear how it will have to address its monopoly in the search engine business — it plans to appeal the judgement — but in the meantime, it also has to answer to its shareholders. According to a report from The Financial Times, Google's parent company Alphabet has reached a preliminary settlement with shareholders who were also suing the company for allowing Google's anticompetitive behavior, which they believe exposed the company to "reputational damage" and "substantial costs."
The new settlement will reportedly force Alphabet to rebuild its "global compliance structure" and will cost the company a minimum of $500 million over the next 10 years to make it happen. At its most basic, this means establishing some kind of committee within the Alphabet board to oversee regulatory issues, of which Google has accrued many in the last few years.
"A new body made up of senior executives would meanwhile report directly to chief executive Sundar Pichai," FT writes, while another group "consisting of product managers and internal compliance experts," would consult. The goal is to prevent Alphabet and its subsidiaries from making the kind of business decision that led to Google being deemed a monopoly on multiple counts. A judge will need to approve the settlement before the company can move forward, though.
The case against Alphabet officials like Sundar Pichai and Sergey Brin was originally brought by a Michigan pension fund on behalf of shareholders back in 2021. In comparison to the structural changes the US Department of Justice is requesting, paying some money and forming some committees is a small ask. In the grand scheme of things, changing how Alphabet deals with regulation will likely be one of the more minor ways the company's business is forced to change in the next few years.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/alphabet-settles-with-shareholders-over-google-antitrust-lawsuit-195636653.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/alphabet-settles-with-shareholders-over-google-antitrust-lawsuit-195636653.html?src=rssConnectez-vous pour ajouter un commentaire
Autres messages de ce groupe
On Tuesday, Razer launched its first keyboard for the DIY set. As its name implies
OpenAI is keeping up its rapid-fire pace of new AI releases. The company introduced
It's hard to look at Apple's new "
If you weren't paying close attention to Apple's
Welcome to Video Games Weekly on Engadget. Expect a new story every Monday, broken into two parts. The first is a space for short essays and ramblings about video game trends and related topics
Nearly two years after launching Threads, Meta is finally giving in to users on one of the most requested features for the service: direct messaging. The company is beginning to test a dedicated in
There's a new (ish) retro console on the block. The ModRetro Chromatic had a soft launch last year but is now "permanently in stock" for consumers. This is another machine that runs Game Boy and Ga
