Alphabet | Business Upturn

Sreenivasa Reddy to become Google’s head of India policy: Report

Avinash Ram — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 17:42:26 +0000

Alphabet’s Google intends to engage a manufacturing and policy veteran as its senior government affairs executive in India to handle legal concerns and bring hardware assembly to the country. According to people with knowledge of the issue who wanted to remain anonymous since the material is private, Sreenivasa Reddy, a senior engineering executive now employed by Microsoft, is most likely to join Google by the end of this year. Prior to this, he supervised government relations at the regional office of the Swedish company Ericsson AB, which makes telecom equipment, and he held key positions on Apple’s India regulatory team, both of which helped to boost domestic manufacturing.

Reddy’s experience will be helpful to Google, which is searching for Indian partners to build its Pixel series of smartphones as it attempts to diversify away from China. Following the production of Pixel in India, local production of further Google hardware products, such as speakers, is possible. Additionally, the executive will help Google overcome regulatory challenges. The Mountain View, California-based company has been accused by the Indian government of breaking antitrust rules by allegedly abusing its monopolistic position in the market for mobile operating systems. Reddy and Google representatives in India were contacted but did not respond. The person in charge of Google’s India strategy, Archana Gulati, left the company last year.

Google is one of several big multinational IT firms that regard India as a key market for expansion. The company is looking for ways to lower the price of its Android smartphones and increase the number of regional languages available on its website in an effort to draw more customers in the country with the biggest population. According to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who made the announcement during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent trip to the US, the company intends to construct a worldwide financial technology base in Gujarat, the home state of Modi. The name GIFT City refers to Gujarat International Finance Tech-City.

Google parent Alphabet to deliver internet in remote areas in project “Taara”

Dixita Hazarika — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 18:02:35 +0000

Alphabet’s Taara project has so far helped to link up internet services in 13 countries including Australia, Kenya and Fiji.

According to company executives, The ‘Taara’ project is a part of Alphabet’s innovation lab called X, and was initiated in 2016 after attempts at using stratospheric balloons to deliver the internet ran into problems due to high costs.

Google parent Alphabet already tried and failed to bring internet access to rural and remote areas by using high-altitude balloons in the stratosphere. But now, the company is delivering internet service to remote areas with the usage of beams of light.

Taara executives and Bharti Airtel, one of India’s largest telecommunications and internet providers, told Reuters they are now moving toward larger-scale deployment of the new laser internet technology in India. Financial details were not disclosed.

Mahesh Krishnaswamy, who leads ‘Taara’ said that Taara is helping to link up internet services in 13 countries so far including Australia, Kenya and Fiji. He also added that it has struck deals with Econet Group and its subsidiary Liquid Telecom in Africa, internet provider Bluetown in India and Digicel in the Pacific Islands.

Taara’s machine is the size of traffic lights that beam the laser carrying the data – essentially fiber-optic internet without the cables. Partners like Airtel use the machines to build out communications infrastructure in hard-to-reach places.

Randeep Sekhon, Bharti Airtel’s chief technology officer said Taara will also help deliver faster internet service in urban areas in developed countries. He said it is less expensive to beam data between buildings than to bury fiber-optic cables.

Krishnaswamy was recently in Osur, an Indian village where he spent his childhood summers, three hours south of Chennai, for the installation of Taara equipment. He said that Osur will be receiving high-speed internet for the first time this summer.

In July 2020, Google committed $10 billion (roughly Rs. 82,046 crore) for digitizing India. It invested $700 million (roughly Rs. 5,742 crore) for a 1.28 percent stake in Bharti Airtel last year. X and Google are sister companies under Alphabet, while Taara’s partnership with Bharti Airtel is separate from the Google investment.

When asked about the downside of the internet as X and Taara push ahead with their mission to connect the rest of the world, Astro Teller, who leads X said, “I acknowledge the concept that the Internet is imperfect, but I would suggest that’s maybe the subject of a different moonshot to improve the internet’s content.”

Google sues US company & owner in federal court for fake business listings fraud

Avinash Ram — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 17:11:40 +0000

Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, filed a federal court lawsuit against a man from Los Angeles and his businesses on Friday. According to the lawsuit, the individual established hundreds of fictitious company listings on Google’s platforms and sold them to legitimate organisations in order to entice unwary clients.

On online storefronts, fake reviews have frequently been a concern. In a statement, Google said that the reason for bringing legal action against Ethan QiQi Hu was to “help put an end to these types of malicious schemes.” A request for comment from Hu did not immediately receive a response.

Hu is accused in Google’s complaint of fabricating fake companies that show up in Google Maps and its search engine while employing a “elaborate set of props” to confirm them during video chats with the tech company’s representatives.

According to the complaint, Hu keeps a work bench as a prop to check phoney listings for plumbing, tree cutting and garage maintenance, as well as essential oils to check bogus aromatherapy and reiki therapy firms.

According to Google, Hu purchases tens of thousands of phoney favourable evaluations to give the companies a respectable appearance. Then, it is said, he sells the profiles to legitimate companies operating in related industries as “leads” so they may get in touch with any clients who might have contacted the fictitious companies.

Google claimed Hu generated more than 350 bogus profiles, supported by more than 14,000 fraudulent reviews.

In the complaint, Hu was charged with deceptive advertising, illegal business practises, and breaking Google’s terms of service. Google requested an injunction to stop Hu’s alleged misbehaviour as well as an undefined sum of money in damages from the court.

The case number is 5:23-cv-02964 and is between Google LLC and Hu in the Northern District of California.

Alphabet, Meta earnings drop suggests uncertain 2023 for digital ads industry, big tech

Aryan Jakhar — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 08:23:28 +0000

After a difficult year in which advertising-dependent firms faced reduced budgets and plummeting stock values, fourth-quarter reports from Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Snap revealed that they were not yet out of the woods.

The health of the advertising industry is closely tied to the health of the economy. As a result of record-high inflation rates and ongoing worries about a recession, many marketers have cut their spending on advertising.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced a tiny drop in quarterly ad income on Thursday, missing Wall Street projections and surprising investors given that the world’s largest digital ad platform has historically proven robust in comparison to smaller rivals. Alphabet shares were down 5% in after-hours trading after the bell.

“For a company the size of Google and as influential as Google to have such disappointing results, that means the ad industry won’t turn around in one quarter,” said Evelyn Mitchell, an analyst at Insider Intelligence.

Snap, the company that owns the picture messaging app Snapchat, said on Tuesday that it expects revenue for the current quarter to drop by up to 10% because of competition for advertising dollars and a tough economy.

“(Advertisers) are managing their spend very cautiously so they can react quickly to any changes in the environment,” Snap Chief Executive Evan Spiegel said during an earnings call.

The second-largest digital ad platform, Meta Platforms, buoyed Wall Street on Wednesday with cost savings and a massive share repurchase, despite reporting its third straight quarter of year-over-year revenue drops.

Lower ad spending from financial services and technology firms was one reason for the revenue reduction, according to the company.

According to Meta Chief Financial Officer Susan Li, the broader economy is “very turbulent,” and it is too early to predict how the year will unfold.

According to Nicola Mendelsohn, Meta’s vice president of global business group, the atmosphere among marketers is one of “cautious optimism” for the next year.

According to Mendelsohn, advertisers have been positive about the US market, but the mood in Europe has suffered, and China has shown indications of recovery, albeit the future remains unknown despite the country’s openness.

GOOGL stocks fall ahead of the Google Stock Split

News Desk — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 18:38:06 +0000

Shares of the leading search engine operator, Alphabet (GOOGL -1.53%) (GOOG -1.48%), have hit a roadblock, falling 23% since the start of the year. This comes right when The company is scheduled to undergo a 20-for-1 stock split on Friday, July 15, with the aim of making its shares more affordable and alluring to retail investors.

Usually, When companies initiate stock splits, the number of outstanding shares increases and the price per share decreases. This occurs proportionately so that the market capitalization f the company remains unaltered.

Alphabet investors will receive an added 19 shares for each one they already own. It will be the company’s first stock split since April 2014, when it split its shares 1,998-for-1,000.

Google’s stock (GOOGL) is one of the priciest equities on the market. Currently, Class A and Class C shares take the fourth and the fifth spots. As the most expensive stocks to own on Wall Street.

Ruth Porat, the firm’s chief financial officer, was asked why the company is splitting the stock. She said. “The reason for the split is to make our shares more accessible. We thought it made sense to do so.”

Vanguard votes negative on pay of executives of Alphabet

Apurva Khairnar — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 14:34:04 +0000

Vanguard Group Inc said that it voted against the pay of Alphabet Inc executives including Sundar Pichai. This is one of the several examples of proxy voting the top mutual fund firm gave in a report released on Tuesday.

Vanguard said in the report that it “found a misalignment between pay and performance” and would have liked to see more long term compensation tied to metrics like relative total shareholder return.”

Vanguard has opposed to Albhabet’s executive pay in prior years. But like other fund firms lately, it has begun to disclose more details about its reasoning behind specific proxy votes.

The parent of search engine Google paid Pichai’s stock awards valued at $276.6 million for 2019, according to company’s proxy, accounting for nearly all compensation.

In an advisory ballot at Alphabet’s annual meeting in June, 25% of votes cast were against the pay.