Re: That's silly
No it's not silly. It's $7billion, which is way too much to lose no matter how many other billions in profit there are. Losses are considered on an absolute scale, not a relative scale. And to shareholders, who are generally pension schemes one way or other (including yours), $7billion is a lot.
And this might be just the beginning. As well as the antitrust investigation in the commission, the French police have raided their Paris office and there is a live investigation into tax evasion and money laundering going on. If that sticks then it's criminal offences and correspondingly higher fines.
So that 7 billion has the potential to grow a lot. And that's before every other country in Europe with a Google office rushes to prosecute too to get their fines paid before somewhere else fines Google into oblivion first. In Europe the findings of the French legal system sets a precedent across the whole of Europe, not just France.
Google argue that they do what they do to fulfil their prime directive, to maximise shareholder value. But there's no point doing that to excess in the short term at the expense of long term shareholder value. Google's board look like they will be asked to explain exactly how honestly they considered the question "is this a good idea". If they find themselves in court answering that question then they personally will need to have an answer better than "everyone else does it".
Speaking of everyone else, it'll be interesting to see what Apple, Amazon, Starbucks, etc. all do if Google are successfully prosecuted by the French. They've got similar (though more discrete, non-customer facing) arrangements which might suddenly start looking like a huge liability...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
