Pichai Up Google CEO Sundar Pichai is taking over the reins at parent company Alphabet, too. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are stepping down, though they will remain on the board (and keep controlling Alphabet through their special voting stock). Fortune
Google Turkey Google will no longer be able to work with Turkish carriers on new Android phone releases in the country, because the Turkish competition regulator says the company has not made compulsory changes to its business contracts. The issues at hand here are not dissimilar to other Android antitrust cases, such as those in the EU—Turkey's authorities told Google to stop making its own search engine the default in Android phones, but it hasn't done so. Reuters
YouTubers' Rights Meet Joerg Sprave, a German maker of crossbow and slingshot videos—and organizer of the "YouTubers' Union" Facebook group, which is trying to push back against changes that have left him and other creators less able to make a living. The changes came about a couple years back, when, under advertiser pressure, YouTube demonetized controversial videos. Interestingly, Sprave and his group are being backed by Germany's powerful IG Metall union. AFP
Google Fine France's competition authority has fined Google $167 million over antitrust abuses in its ad business. The watchdog said Google's rules for advertisers were non-objective, non-transparent and discriminatory. The monetary fine is accompanied by an order for Google to change its terms and procedures. Reuters
Trillion-dollar club Alphabet has become the fourth U.S. firm to gain a valuation of $1 trillion, after Apple, Microsoft and (briefly) Amazon achieved the feat over the last year and a half. Alphabet's Thursday valuation came in the context of a rally for big tech stocks this month. Wall Street Journal
A recent article on Forbes.com had the eye-catching headline "Americans Rank A Google Internship Over A Harvard Degree".
Google antitrust State attorneys general and the Justice Department will reportedly compare notes next week on their various probes into Google's online ad business and the firm's Android-related tactics. The unprecedented meeting could presage more formal cooperation. Wall Street Journal
Alphabet breakout Alphabet's results yesterday beat analyst's profit estimates, but fell short on the revenues Wall Street was hoping to see. Shares fell 2.5% accordingly. Interestingly, though, Alphabet for the first time broke out results for YouTube's ad business ($15.1 billion in 2019 revenue, up from $11.2 billion the year before) and the Google Cloud unit ($8.9 billion in 2019; $5.8 billion in 2018). TechCrunch