In an unprecedented bid to acquire Motorola Mobility, Google is expected to pay upwards of $12.5 billion in cash and could own more than 17,000 patents on phone technology. I n response, Steve Pociask, the president of the American Consumer Institute, issued the following statement:

 

“Already under an antitrust investigation from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the magnitude of this latest deal will draw further attention to Google for the same issues of market dominance.  The latest announcement by Google is just one of over one hundred acquisitions by the company and it emphasizes a worrisome pattern of conduct.  There are allegations that Google has pressured cell phone manufacturers not to use competing operating systems, and the latest deal could effectively lockout competition.  In addition, the FTC recently announced remedies with Google for its deceptive privacy practices, and numerous law enforcement agencies and attorneys general have targeted the company over its ‘Spy-Fi’ practices.  While in the midst of deflecting privacy charges over the acquisition of location-based data off of customer mobile phones, adding a large cell phone company to its empire will surely serve to echo those same privacy concerns and demand Google to answer further questions about the privacy of its consumers.”

 

 

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