ASAP IT Technology Blog

In a report released by the Wall Street Journal in April 2015, the European Union, through the European Commission in charge of unfair competition, is preparing to serve Google, Inc. with a lawsuit for violating European anti-trust regulations. Now led by Margrethe Vestager, the investigation has been ongoing since 2010 and was subject to a number of political controversies and delays. Last year, the European Parliament put forth a nonbinding resolution in which Google would separate its search service from its other businesses. US Congress wrote a letter in response decrying this action. Vestager, recently instated to Commissioner for Competition in November 2014, has stated that she does not seek a settlement from the technology giant and is hoping rather to take the case to court in order to set a lasting legal precedent within the European Union. The European Commission cites four main claims against Google.

First, Google’s search engine accounts for 90% of all searches in the EU. The Commission believes the company has been unfairly promoting its own services in search results at the expense of local businesses. Vestager has issued a formal request for complainants to publically publish unredacted documents from businesses who have been adversely affected by Google’s alleged practices. Second, the EU believes that the company is engaging in “scraping,” or copying original material from competing websites. Third, Google may be excluding competing search advertising providers. Lastly, the Commission charges Google with implementing contractual restrictions on developers who provide seamless transfer of ad campaigns on other platforms. The initial complaint is traced back to November 2010 when three search service providers (Foundem, eJustice, and Ciao! from Bing) claimed that Google unfairly filtered their websites from search results or lowered their search rankings. The European Commission opened an investigation and in 2012 the previous chief of competition, Joaquin Almunia, offered the company a chance to institute remedies to avoid a formal complaint, which Google subsequently declined. If Google is found liable for practices in violation of anti-trust/anti-competition regulation, the company will have to pay up to 10% off its annual revenue in penalties.

Via our proprietary website ASAP IT Technology, ASAP Semiconductor is a leading supplier of connectivity products. Prospective customers can browse our inclusive inventory of hard-to-find obsolete and current IT hardware parts at www.asap-ittechnology.com. If you are interested in a part, please feel free to contact our knowledgeable sales staff at sales@asap-ittechnology.com or +1-714-705-4780 for a quote.

The innovative Cloud-based gaming service OnLive has been acquired by the electronics powerhouse Sony. Once worth an estimated USD$1.8 billion, OnLive went through massive layoffs due to high costs and anemic marketing which pushed the company into bankruptcy. Sony has purchased the company for $4.8 million and is purchasing company assets such as 140 U.S. and international cloud gaming service patents. OnLive will not be renewing any current subscriptions as their operations will cease come April 30. Sony’s purchasing strategy is to purposely shut the company down. Founded by Steve Perlman, an Apple and Microsoft alum, OnLive was the very first game streaming service.

The company provided their customers a way to play visually refined video games without the necessity of purchasing expensive computer hardware. Dubbed “cloud gaming,” the system works via gaming programs that would run on power computers in a server and is broadcasted over the Internet to the customer’s computer or tablet. This system works very similarly to how Netflix streams its videos to television sets. At the company’s peak, OnLive has over 1 million active users with a game library of over 200 titles, all of which are accessible through televisions, PCs, smartphones, and tablets. Sony currently features technology very similar to OnLive. Through their PlayStation family of gaming devices, Sony has built a streaming service using technology that they purchased in 2012 from Gaikai for $380 million. Their service, the PlayStation Now streaming service, was launched in January and provides access to over 100 gaming titles. Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational company that primarily focuses on electronic products. Listed as 105th on the Fortune Global 500, Sony has over 140,000 employees and has met over 7 trillion yen in yearly revenue. Their product portfolio ranges from electronics, games, entertainment, and financial services and Sony stands as one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electronic products for both consumers and professionals.

Via our proprietary website ASAP IT Technology, ASAP Semiconductor is a leading supplier of Sony products. Prospective customers can browse our inclusive inventory of hard-to-find obsolete and current Sony parts at www.asap-ittechnology.com. If you are interested in a part, please feel free to contact our knowledgeable sales staff at sales@asap-ittechnology.com or +1-714-705-4780 for a quote.