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Something interesting happened during the Google antitrust trial yesterday, reports Reuters. Patrick Chang was called to testify, he’s a former executive at Samsung Electronics’ venture capital arm. In any case, during the testimony, it was revealed that Google basically prevented Samsung from expanding its search app offering.
Google seemingly prevented Samsung from expanding search app offering
Chang worked at Samsung Next, and he urged Samsung to expand the offerings of Brach to its Android smartphones. Branch has the possibility to search within apps, by the way. It was said that this didn’t happen due to pressure from Google.
Branch Metrics’ founder and former CEO, Alexander Austin, testified in late September, and said that his company eliminated some of its software functions to fend off Google’s complaints. It gave up on making deals with wireless carriers and smartphone makers. Branch basically had to ensure that its searches never linked to the web, they had to stay focused on apps.
Google did push back during cross examination
Now, Google’s attorney did cross-examine Chang yesterday. He was asked about another possible explanation for Samsung’s disinterest in Branch. Google brought up the issues of clunky software and user disinterest in what Branch had to offer. We don’t have any info past that.
As many of you know, this trial has been ongoing since September 12. The DoJ is trying to prove that Google abused its monopoly of search, and some search advertising too.
The deals that Google made with companies to remain at the top of the food chain are well-known, but the details were not. A lot of additional info surfaced during this trial already, and we have around 5 more weeks to go.
If Google ends up losing this trial, that could mean the breakup of parts of its company, and various other repercussions. If not, well, it could still hurt the company quite a bit, due to all the info that surfaced. It remains to be seen, we still have plenty of testimonies to hear.
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