Google Can Side-Step Trump by Taking a Cue From Amazon’s Playbook
After Trump badmouths Google, Alphabet can maintain silence like Amazon, regain their share market losses after Trump’s remarks.
(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.’s Google could probably use some advice from Jeff Bezos right now.
Donald Trump’s Tuesday morning tweets -- accusing Google of rigging results about him -- seem to place the search engine at the top of the president’s most wanted list, a position familiar to Amazon.com Inc. and its chief executive officer. Google responded that its search feature “is not used to set a political agenda” and doesn’t bias results toward any political ideology. The company’s shares closed down 0.8 percent.
The tech giant could consider taking a page from Bezos’s book, or more likely his Kindle, and let the matter drop. In late March, Amazon saw as much as $53 billion erased from its market value in one day after Trump was said to be “obsessed” with regulating the e-commerce company. Amazon kept quiet, recovered its losses within a month and has traded higher ever since.
To be sure, Google may not be as popular with consumers as Amazon, and any scrutiny from the president could weigh on its sentiment on Wall Street. Trump on Tuesday warned that Google -- along with Facebook.com Inc. and Twitter Inc. -- “better be careful” as the companies “are treading on very, very troubled territory.” Google is due to face lawmakers at a hearing on Russian election meddling on Sept. 5.
....results on âTrump Newsâ are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous. Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!
â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018
--With assistance from Jeran Wittenstein.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kamaron Leach in New York at kleach6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Morwenna Coniam
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