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Sunday, November 8, 
1:43 pm

Varney uses Google to send message

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google-125x100.jpgInternet 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 


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