The travel industry plays a key role in the web information field, and each search engine is working hard to create travel features. However, Google’s move to take over the biggest flight information provider has been met with concern and scrutiny from the U.S. Government, who’s Justice Department is now investigating the potential impact of the deal.
Google’s acquisition of ITA, a flight information company that Google is intending to pick up for roughly $700 million (U.S.), is big enough and far reaching enough that competitor complaints were listened to carefully. ITA is to flight information what Google is to search engines, and the acquisition would give Google detailed access to travel information — and would thus allow Google to innovate around those features. The issue here is that Google’s competitors use information from ITA, and having control over this information would allow Google to engage in unfair practices that discouraged competition.
Starting last year and extending through late January, the Justice Department was presented with the information they needed to determine if a case would be appropriate. According to recent reports, the case is now in the phase where the government will decide whether a lawsuit preventing the deal is appropriate.
Diversification has long been a key to business success in modern economics, but Google has taken this concept to a whole new level. Rather than investing in a couple new outlets, the search engine giant has become a titanic tech company by acquiring dozens of companies each year — from small name groups like Zetawire, an NFC payment processing group, to Android, the OS that has now taken the lead position in the global smartphone operating system race. However, this broad diversification also has competitors, watch groups, and even a chunk of the general population worried; how far should Google be able to extend its reach?
