Internet omnipresence Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) knew that the Obama
administration would be taking a close look at how the company competes
when Christine Varney was announced to run the Department of Justice's
Antitrust Division.
But what may be surprising to both observers
and the Mountain View, Calif.-based company is that DOJ and its
antitrust enforcement rival, the Federal Trade Commission, would be
conducting simultaneous investigations, though peering through a
different regulatory window.
According to The Wall Street
Journal, the FTC is now investigating the makeup of Google's board of
directors and its overlap with Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) board, which
share two members: Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and Arthur
Levinson, the former
chief executive of Genentech Inc.
The FTC has been looking at
different ways companies compete and how they share data. The agency
has penalized large investment companies that have taken large stakes
in rival firms, arguing that the financial interest and ability to
influence the companies could undercut competition.
This
review could also be a reminder to the folks at DOJ that there's
ongoing competition to investigate and assess anticompetitive
practices of major companies, and a warning to companies that the
administration is hoping to make good on its threat of increased antitrust
scrutiny. - Cecile Kohrs Lindell in Washington
See related story from Corporate DealmakerSee story from The Wall Street Journal
See earlier story from Dealscape
See related story about Varney from Dealscape
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