Bonum Certa Men Certa

Meet Microsoft: World's Chief Acquisitions Policeman

The first 3 hyperlinks in our latest news digest show that a Yahoo-Microsoft takeover is bound to face high-level scrutiny. Microsoft-owned or Microsoft-affiliated publications like Motley Fool are already trying to spin and trivialise this issue by pretending it does not exist, as in "if you say it many times, they will eventually believe it."

As we showed several times in the past, several government departments (e.g. Department of Justice) are virtually controlled by Microsoft because they were occupied by Microsoft lobbyists that had been sneaked in a decade ago. Do not forget the FTC and the FCC, either. If you knew nothing about Microsoft's political control, then now you should know [1, 2, 3, 4].

This bring us to yesterday's news about Google facing further scrutiny in Europe. This was triggered by complaints which Microsoft had initiated several months ago.

Google Facing EU DoubleClick Objections



[...]

The extended review initiated by the EU pushed that date out to possibly as far as April 2nd, after deciding in an initial investigation they needed more time to review the case.


Microsoft is trying to buy some time.

“It acts like a cop approving or disapproving other companies' activities, but when it comes to its own strategic actions, it is virtually above the law.”But here comes the bit about sheer hypocrisy. Microsoft is currently offering to buy a major rival for no less than $40,000,000,000, but at the same time it also attacks Google's planned acquisition of DoubleClick (valued at just over $3,000,000,000, i.e. an order of magnitude lower than the former). Adding insult to injury, Microsoft does all of this despite the fact that Microsoft itself offered to pay almost double that amount for DoubleClick. It was rejected by DoubleClick investors or a combination of factors that includes those investors.

Mind the fact that there are other attacks on Google (e.g. Viacom vs. YouTube) and it is quite clear that Microsoft called for such attacks. Microsoft is a catalyst for a fact. Essentially, Microsoft may have already been caught attacking Google litigiously, by proxy. It acts like a cop approving or disapproving other companies' activities, but when it comes to its own strategic actions, it is virtually above the law.

Going back to the Yahoo-Microsoft bid, here are some thoughts and rants you might sympathise with:

When from 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN/Live) — as all the others are mostly jokes — you manage to only have 2 (Google and YahooLive!), I don't care whether they call it "oligopoly" or "monopoly".

The world is defenseless in front of the corporate greed, and we'll end in a world with no alternative choices. What's funny, the name of this Orwellian world is not "communism", but "corporative capitalism", supposedly in a "democratic free world".


On the same issue of undesirable (even hostile) takeovers, consider the fact that Nokia has potentially (and negatively) affected Android, which is Google's gentle attempt not to step (or stomp) on other mobile Linux initiatives striving to centralise and standardise Linux development (thereby ending detrimental fragmentation). Nokia likes Symbian and it probably sees Qt as a threat. Nokia itself uses GTK in Maemo, so the acquisition of Trolltech was mysterious and seemingly insane, until you started to consider it sinister.

As a side note, Sun has a similar issue. It is trying to out-Linux GNU/Linux with OpenSolaris, but it's duplicating effort. Andy Morton doesn't want to merge with OpenSolaris. If Sun just 'hijacked' Linux, then this would be seen as a scenario similar to Oracle's and IBM's who, being giants, don't want to alienate people by hurting ones like Red Hat. They haven't properly marketed themselves as independent Linux distributors who fork communal projects. What will Nokia do with Qt? What about Zimbra? Or Xen for GNU/Linux?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
GNOME GUADEC 2022 & Debian Albanian women trafficked to Mexico?
Reprinted with permission from the Free Software Fellowship
Sainsbury's: It Takes Us Up to Two Days to Respond to Customers Upon Escalation (and Sometimes Even More Than Two Days)
It not only does groceries but also many other things, even banking
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day