BMO Capital Markets investment strategist Brian Belski talks about his prospects for the big tech stocks.
Microsoft and Google are going head-to-head over new, dual legislation that will help digital media companies and newspapers negotiate with Big Tech companies.
The Competition and Preservation of Journalism legislation, introduced in the House and Senate, will enable small organizations to negotiate fees with the Big Tech companies around the world – such as Google and Facebook – for sharing their content for free.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | Alter | Alter% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GOOGL | ALPHABET, INC. | 2 050,00 | -50.54 | -2.41% |
| MSFT | MICROSOFT CORP. | 235,75 | -1.38 | -0.58% |
| FB | FACEBOOK, INC. | 268,40 | -5.48 | -2.00% |
Microsoft has voiced support for the legislation while Google is pushing back against both chambers, and the two companies released statements Friday to attack each other for their respective views on the bill.
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, addressed what he described as Google’s dominance in the digital advertising market in his written testimony before the competition hearing before Friday at the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commerce and Administrative Law. He noted that in the past year, Google has “generated approximately one-third of all revenue from digital advertising in the United States.”
Microsoft’s Brad Smith (YouTube / House Committee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law screenshot)
Google “is the dominant technology firm in virtually every corner of the digital advertising ecosystem,” Smith said, citing its Search Ads, Ad Tech, Ad Exchange, Ad Tech Tools and Global Consumer Dataset arms as examples of the broad reach of the technology giant in the digital advertising market.
“News organizations have advertising inventory to sell, but they can no longer sell directly to those who want to place ads. Instead, they must, for all practical purposes, use Google’s tools, run Google’s ad exchanges, data “Contribute to Google’s operations, and pay Google money,” he said.
AUSTRALIA LAWS TO PAY GOOGLE, FACEBOOK FOR NEWS
Smith added that ‘Google has effectively transformed itself into the’ front page ‘for news, transferring ownership of the readership and news content on their properties to a commodity import. news organizations to jointly negotiate with online content distributors. “
Google’s senior vice president of global affairs, Kent Walker, responded to Smith’s testimony in a Friday statement that included the company’s efforts to support digital journalism, including a $ 1 billion investment in news content through its Licensing News Showcase feature over three years.
A Google app in Baltimore. (AP Photo / Patrick Semansky, file)
Walker then criticized ‘vulnerabilities’ in Microsoft’s systems after the software company announced in December that SolarWinds hackers had gained access to some of the source code used to build software products.
AUSTRALIA LAWS TO PAY GOOGLE, FACEBOOK FOR NEWS
“Microsoft is the second largest company in the U.S. by market capitalization and owns LinkedIn, MSN, Microsoft News and Bing, all of which are places where news is regularly consumed and shared,” Walker said. “But their record is bad: they paid out a much smaller amount to the news industry than we did. And given the chance to support or fund their own journalists, Microsoft replaced them with AI bots.”
He added that Google “will continue to work with news organizations and policymakers around the world to enable a strong future for journalism.”
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The rift between the two companies and the House Law trial comes after Australia and France forced Big Tech companies to consider paying for news they display on their respective websites to fund the news industry.
Google announced agreements to pay publishers in Australia in February after the country passed a law that allows the country’s government to determine the price of transactions with news outlets if negotiations between technology companies and publishers fail.
The company initially threatened to withdraw its search engine function in Australia altogether if the country passed the law.
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Hillary Vaughn of Fox Business contributed to this report.