Google is hit with a hefty billion dollar fine in the EU, Prime Day breaks records around the world, and the CEO of Nest resigns amidst a company reshuffle.
First up from LinkedIn is news that Google has been hit with a $5 billion dollars US fine from the EU for breaching antitrust laws. The European Commission claims the internet giant abused its dominant position in the market by imposing restrictions on Android manufacturers. According to the ruling, Google inappropriately used Android to force device makers to include its own apps, which gave it an unfair advantage over competitors. What’s interesting is that Google actually got off easy – the EU could have fined it up to 10 per cent of its annual revenue, or $11.1 billion dollars. Google’s latest penalty follows a $2.7 billion fine last year for promoting its own shopping comparison service at the top of its search results. The search giant says it will appeal the latest ruling.
And next from Reddit is results from Amazon’s 2018 Prime Day, which was earlier this week. Despite striking workers in at least four European countries and a website crash, the company says this was its best Prime Day ever. Apparently more than 100 million products were sold in 17 countries worldwide, which is a new record, and a record number of new members signed up for Prime accounts as well. Amazon is projected to post 3.4 billion dollars in sales from Prime Day alone, which even surpasses last year’s Prime Day as well as Cyber Monday and Black Friday. Amazon did expand into Australia, Singapore, the Netherlands and Luxembourg this year, which might have something to do with the record numbers. Prime Day was also upped from 24 hours to 36 hours this year too, so that obviously was a factor. The most successful categories this year were toys, beauty products, Pcs and computer accessories, apparel, and kitchen products.
And last but not least is more Google-related news from LinkedIn again. Marwan Fawaz, the CEO of smart home device maker Nest, has stepped down and the company will now be folded into Google’s home and living room products team. Nest was acquired by Google’s parent company Alphabet in 2014 but has been operating as an independent subsidiary for the last four years. This move is apparently an attempt to help hardware chief Rick Osterloh better integrate Nest products with Google’s own hardware and software, which has been increasingly driven by AI. CNET reports that many people inside Nest thought Fawaz was an inadequate leader and that the change is a welcome one. Fawaz will remain on as an advisor and there will apparently be no layoffs as a result of this shuffle.
