They announced the acquisition in 2019 but it had to get regulatory approval first. A lot of people expected regulators to reject the acquisition.
I consider it a massive failure of our governments that whilst acknowledging Google is a monopoly and engaging in antitrust cases against them, they also permitted Google to buy a multibillion dollar company that will expand their monopoly.
Should they really be penalized before being convicted?
Consider that Oracle claims that the regulatory actions around the world against Google are because they ran an extensive but secret lobbying campaign against Google to make this happen.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-23/oracle-fo...
With enough lobbying dollars much is possible - isn't this a reminder to wait for the outcome before you convict?
Also, clearly the monopoly that is being suggested is not in this area - in fact, there is a danger in the dominance of Apple's watch and this should increase competition.
> Should they really be penalized before being convicted?
People often land in prison before they are convicted. Also restricting a company that appears to be a bad actor to prevent additional harm on society seems only sensible.
> People often land in prison before they are convicted.
Yeah, and this is seen as a huge injustice by many people. There are clear cut cases where there is a risk of flight or further harm, but in most cases, this type of discretionary pre-trial incarceration tends to impact minorities and people without means to hire lawyers or pay for bonds.
This analogy falls apart there because there are few companies that would be subject to monopoly rules that would lack the resources to defend themselves.
Yep. Maybe they'll object to the acquisition a year later after Google has safely 5x 3-AZ replicated all the heart rate, sleep and location data from millions of people. Apparently Google is simultaneously a monopoly due to the market power they gained using data but yet safe enough to trust with pings every minute from people wearing a watch all day. Its nuts.
I won't comment on the privacy implications, but can you substantiate your claims about competition at all?
I saw Apple Watch utterly destroy Microsoft Band and Pebble, and FitBit was headed for the same fate. If not for Google stepping in, competition against Apple Watch would have just been from Garmin (solid company, but they too probably would have been crushed).
Source: investor in Apple, FitBit, Garmin, Google, Microsoft; was in the first batch of Pebble 3rd party devs; avid Microsoft Band user and participated in a number of internal projects when I was there.