MOUNTAIN VIEW – Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) has a new problem on its hands, after the European Parliament recently voted to have the company broken up into two entities. The plan here is to cut Google’s search business from all other services in an effort to break the company’s monopoly in search.
Members of the European Parliament have voted 458 to 173 to split Google in two. This motion was expected to be passed on Thursday, mainly because it had the backing of the two main administrative groups, which are the center-left Socialists and the center-right EPP.
The vote is lacking any form of anti-trust investigation and has caused anger among US legislators who are not pleased with the ruling and believe it is very much a political move.
This issue is stemming from the European Commission’s 5-year-old inquiry into Google’s search practices that is still under review after three failed attempts to settle the matter once and for all. There have been signs in the past of a way out for Mountain View giant, but nothing of value came from all the efforts made.
From what we are seeing here, it is clear that the European Parliament is fed-up of waiting for Google to come up with the perfect plan that would please everyone. Furthermore, the EU lawmakers are very vocal for tougher actions to be taken against Google, which could be another reason this vote has taken place.
We should point out that despite the voting of the European Parliament, nothing can be done without the say of the European Commission. The parliament has no power in this regard to suggest a new legislation, which means the vote is just a tactic to scare Google, or to keep the EU lawmakers quiet for a while longer.
Chances are; this vote will go on deaf ears as the European Commission is not interested in restructuring Google.
Source: [Financial Times]
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