mpantone

I'm sure there will be more cases brought to the court system in time. This certainly won't be the last time we see the DoJ investigating a large US corporation. Antitrust laws were passed about 130 years ago. The DoJ is trying to enforce current regulations, not just for Alphabet but for everyone.

For sure all of these companies look at the regulations in place and try to figure how to get as close to the line as possible without going over it because if they don't someone else will. But the lines aren't a ditch in the dirt, they are largely conceptual, described in words on paper without some sort of obvious visible demarcation like a strip of chalk on a grass field.

Google allegedly signs non-compete clauses with their AI engineers. Non-compete clauses are effectively unenforceable in the State of California. However there are other jurisdictions where they are valid and enforced. However Google has taken the clever approach to offer a year's worth of salary to departing AI engineers provided they don't go work for the competition. That's very devious in the fast-moving AI industry. Is this illegal? I'm no expert on labor law but at some point someone is going to investigate it.

Anyhow, this most certainly isn't the last we will hear of this particular legal action (i.e., Google, search, Chrome). As I wrote earlier, I fully expect Alphabet to appeal today's ruling. They will likely file that appeal within a week or two and tech media will have more fodder then.

charlesn said:

Well, considering that Apple is the 800 pound gorilla in the consumer electronics space, it will obviously benefit most from any tariff relief by virtue of its huge sales. As far as tariff exemption lines added that "consist of products that Apple makes, but few others do" that's not as favorable to Apple as it sounds. Look at smartphones: there's Apple, Samsung, Google and nobody else that matters. Similarly, with computers, you have a small handful of companies that matter and that's it. So I would imagine that Apple's primary competitors in every line are benefitting from the exemptions, too. 

For sure the temporary tariff exemptions are helping other companies which is why there was a broader market (and electronics sector) bounce after the White House announced the exemption.

Also, when the White House was escalating their retaliatory tariff snit with China, some other companies' stock prices got pummelled even worse than Apple. Notably Dell and HP share prices took massive beatings. We've also seen Nvidia take a beating even though their technology is not present in any currently marketed Apple device to my knowledge. Same with AMD and Intel.

However you're just looking at the top level label on the box. There are tons of components in all types of products. The tariff isn't just applied to the final assembled SKU.

Companies who are more focused on services (Google, Meta, Amazon, etc.) are less affected by technology hardware tariffs in terms of revenue but certainly those tariffs affect operations (the cost of doing business) in doing things like increasing the server costs in data centers, stuff like that.

In the end, nothing will be cheaper for Americans, everything will end up costing more. Tariffs are really just a federal sales tax without being a line item on a store receipt.

New AG, same pursuit. First guilty of monopolizing search, today guilty of monopolizing advertising. It's not like the AG dropped this.

And as we've seen from DOGE reforms and other executive branch action, the current administration has no problems doing things very quickly. If the current president wanted the AG to drop Alphabet litigation, it could have happened very quickly. After all the AG sits in cabinet meetings.

It's not like POTUS doesn't know what's on the AG's plate. I'm sure POTUS has separate individual meetings with all of his cabinet appointees, just like all managers handling direct reports. They're there because he wants them to be there to do what he wants.

My guess is that the Attorney General will push for harsh penalties like divestiture of the Chrome browser and Google's advertising business unit. No slap on the wrist or $1 million fine.

Note that Pam Bondi was nominated by the current president to become AG in late November, about six weeks before the inauguration. For sure the incoming president and she had talks about a variety of issues. She was part of his defense team in the impeachment proceedings in 2019-2020. It's not like they're just getting to know each other. She likely had her marching orders before Christmas 2024 especially for all of these high-profile cases.

Nagra178A said:

Where is Apple Watch 18.4.1?

Stuck on a build server somewhere in Apple's internal network. Don't worry, if Apple deems it a worthwhile release, you'll eventually see it. Patience is a virtue.

Apple is notoriously opaque about their security activity. Nothing new there.

Maybe these two vulnerabilities have little risk being executed on Apple's smartwatch. Maybe they don't even exist at all. Maybe the fix isn't fully baked yet. Who knows? Apple certainly does yet for sure they won't explain the delay since it has already been released for other device platforms.

It's important to note that the DoJ is pursuing Alphabet for other matters, most importantly for monopolizing online search.

These two articles explains it well:

https://www.macrumors.com/2024/08/05/google-search-antitrust-monopoly/

https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/10/doj-google-chrome-sale/

and the DoJ is pushing for divestiture of the Google Chrome browser. It has back burnered divestiture of the Android operating system but that's still something they could push for later.

It's worth pointing out that many these DoJ actions started before the current administration which does not seem to be pulling the reins on the DoJ's pursuit.