Google In For Possible Record Breaking $9B Fine

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The WSJ is reporting that Google may be fined a whopping and record setting $9+B.  That is unprecedented but it was also expected.  What comes around really does go around.  Back when Google was founded they were one of the companies aggressively pushing the EU to fine Microsoft for monopolist behavior.  Like many companies have learned using any government in this fashion is a dual edged sword because the next company in line for this treatment may be the firm that gleefully started the process.  Oracle, which also was pushing for Microsoft to be punished already had their Sun acquisition massively delayed by EU interference effectively destroying the acquisition in the process and now Google faces the mother of all fines partially as a result of getting the EU to take a stronger position on US tech companies

Let’s talk a bit about how we got here and why this doesn’t bode well for Google in particular.

Google’s Problem

I’ve seen this happen to companies ranging from IBM to Microsoft over the years.  The firm, once in power, basically becomes fluid with regard to ethics and what the firm has the power to do starts falling into the bucket of things that are ethical to do.  Things that would have been obviously wrong to the company facing others doing those things become acceptable when the firm is itself in power.