Is Oracle Behind Google's Series of Antitrust Lawsuits?

▲Larry Ellison, Chairman of Oracle

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] It has been revealed that behind the series of antitrust lawsuits filed against Google, the world's largest search engine, by the U.S. federal and state governments, was the enterprise software company Oracle.

According to a report on the 24th by Bloomberg News citing Ken Glick, Oracle's chief lobbyist, Oracle has been lobbying regulatory and judicial authorities in over 30 states including Washington DC, the European Union (EU), and Australia for years to regulate Google's search and advertising businesses.

In particular, Ken Glick added that he provided so-called "black box" materials to state government officials involved in the antitrust lawsuits, showing how Google tracks users' personal information.

Furthermore, upon hearing in 2018 that Arizona was investigating Google's privacy violations, Ken Glick sent a 70-page report claiming that Google was making money by using the personal information of millions of Americans without properly notifying users.

Subsequently, Arizona filed a lawsuit in May, alleging that Google collected location information without sufficiently informing users for personalized advertising.

Ken Glick expressed his feelings, saying, "I couldn't be happier."

Oracle's influence on the government side behind Google's antitrust lawsuits stems from the long-standing rivalry between Oracle and Google.

In 2010, Oracle sued Google for infringing on two patents related to its Java programming language.

In this lawsuit, Google won the first trial, but Oracle won the appeal. The Supreme Court's final ruling, held in October, is expected to be announced around mid-July next year.

Bloomberg also reported that Oracle is known for actively collecting competitors' misconduct or distributing unfavorable reports to pressure competitors.

Bloomberg added that Oracle uses its connections with the government to promote policies favorable to itself, and this capability was demonstrated in this year's bidding war for the Chinese video-sharing application company TikTok.

In fact, while President Donald Trump pressured the sale of TikTok's U.S. business citing national security threats, Microsoft was initially considered a leading acquisition candidate, but Oracle was ultimately selected as the acquisition negotiator at the last minute.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.