Bill Gates dropped by The New York Times on Monday to discuss his full-time job as head of the Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropy, especially its work in global health and development. Mr. Gates was on his way to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he is expected to announce an expansion of the foundation’s vaccine programs in poor nations.
But Mr. Gates is still the chairman and largest shareholder of Microsoft. And when asked, Mr. Gates had a few observations on the Internet search efforts of Microsoft and Google that were, by turns, acute, sardonic and tart.
Is Google a monopolist? “I wouldn’t call anyone a monopolist,” replied Mr. Gates, who has frequently been the target of that epithet over the years. He went on to say that historically companies that become “hyper-successful” invite government antitrust scrutiny, and he placed Google in that small, elite group of technology companies: AT&T, I.B.M. and Microsoft. Welcome to the club, Google. “If governments don’t care, that’s a bad sign,” Mr. Gates said.
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But Mr. Gates is still the chairman and largest shareholder of Microsoft. And when asked, Mr. Gates had a few observations on the Internet search efforts of Microsoft and Google that were, by turns, acute, sardonic and tart.
Is Google a monopolist? “I wouldn’t call anyone a monopolist,” replied Mr. Gates, who has frequently been the target of that epithet over the years. He went on to say that historically companies that become “hyper-successful” invite government antitrust scrutiny, and he placed Google in that small, elite group of technology companies: AT&T, I.B.M. and Microsoft. Welcome to the club, Google. “If governments don’t care, that’s a bad sign,” Mr. Gates said.
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