Facebook, Apple, And Microsoft Are Ganging Up On Google
Back in the old days, the big bad company in tech that all the other companies teamed-up against was Microsoft.
Microsoft was the evil empire.
So, Apple and Google worked together to squash Microsoft.
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs used to mentor Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google CEO Eric Schmidt used to sit on the Apple board.
This is no longer the case.
These days, the common enemy is Google.
In recent years, there have been a number of explicit and implicit partnerships between the three biggest companies in consumer technology — Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook.
Some examples:
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Microsoft invested in Facebook at a $15 billion valuation back in 2007.
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Facebook generates massive ad revenues through its iOS app. Conceivably, Apple could ask for a piece of that business. It has not.
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Apple has integrated Facebook deeply into iOS.
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Microsoft powers Apple's Siri. All those Siri queries are improving Microsoft's machine-learning capabilities versus Google's.
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After first buying it for $6.3 billion in in 2007, Microsoft sold its ad-serving platform, Atlas, to Facebook in 2013 for peanuts. Now Atlas is at the center of Facebook's rapidly growing ad stack.
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Microsoft and Apple co-lead a group of companies that outbid Google for mobile patents from Nortel. This forced Google buy Motorola for $12 billion.
All this ganging-up against Google is coming during a rough transition period for the company.
Employed
10 年I don't agree that Microsoft was an evil empire. From the tech giants of today , it was IBM who first ventured in to mainframes ,super computers, personal computing , OS for home and enterprise.Microsoft with its DOS was a visitor in its arcade.Tide and time turned in favor of others who partnered with MS.The race for GUI software was won by MS with Windows & Office making inroad to every computing device.IBM with its partners across the continents ,had the empire.
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10 年And why is anyone surprised. Back in the old days (of the USA) there was a 'thing' called anti-trust law'. Guess what, the corporate leaders of today in this space will not last the distance as their values (business and sharemarket) are simply not sustainable. My 19 year-old son is already a cynic and is campaigning for Open Source and against the obscene US-led money men who are parlaying their latest toys as the great democratiser in the world. Get real. The money men might be happy, but watch out.....the younger generation has your measure.
Group Business Coordinator
10 年Google has carved a niche for itself and will be THE company and cement itself day in day out....??
National Partner SE - SHI @ SentinelOne
10 年But still Google rules. No matter how many companies gang up, Google will always be the best in what they do. But as people say, Your worst enemy can be your best friend.
BIM Manager @ Takenaka Europe GmbH | BIM Software
10 年once enemy can be a good friend for the next business venture.. and for business world this statement rightly fit.. "Everything is fair in the race of power & business"