Forget the $9-billion of fines that came before. They barely scratched the surface. For Google, this is the big one. The stakes could not be higher. By Alex Webb.
Author: Alex Webb
For now, Naspers and Prosus CEO Bob van Dijk has managed to figure out a short-term fix for his problem. Eventually he’ll need to think longer term. By Alex Webb.
Prosus suffers from the same problem as Manchester City Football Club: Because everyone knows it has access to vast amounts of capital, it’s always at risk of overpaying for acquisitions.
Google and Facebook make a lot of noise about how their main services are free to use. And it’s true, they are. But what they don’t highlight is their role in making almost everything else we consume online more expensive.
History has shown that Facebook is able to impose new terms and conditions on users with little negative consequence. Rinse and repeat. By Alex Webb.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. News leaks that enterprise software giant Salesforce.com is interested in acquiring a trendy tech company. Then its stock falls 5%, erasing billions of market value. Ring any bells?