Is Google "too big to fail"?

[MovingTarget]

No more so than Microsoft. Sure, it would suck if they did, but eventually we would all move on to the next latest and greatest OS/App/Search engine/browser/etc. There are plenty of alternatives that would step up to the plate if more would give them a chance, which a failure of Microsoft or Google certainly would...

 

[slayer202]

you could have at least linked the article you read about this...it was in the times I believe?

 

[Patranus]

No considering the only thing they contribute to the economy is advertising revenue.

 

[Syringer]

If Facebook were to fail the economy would boom with the increased productivity of everyone in the world.

 

[Pollock]

Google isn't too big to fail because if it does, it will have meant that everyone has moved on from Google for another company's service(s).

Or rather, some other company will simply acquire Google's assets, just like with every other industry. It's not like Gmail would simply stop existing.

 

[JS80]

True however none of them every grew to one tenth the size google has. Perhaps not even 1% the size.

I'm pretty sure every single one of those had $10 billion+ market caps and possibly up to $50 billion at its peak.

 

[edmundoab]

If Citibank could fall during recession, there could be alot of reason why a big company can fall.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Google has bought its current revenue stream.

You have to look at all the acquisitions Google has done over the past 8yrs to really understand what "Google" is now. Its far from just a search engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Google

 

[Nik]

no "search engine" is too big to fail.

Ask Lycos
Ask Webcrawler
Ask Infoseek
Ask Altavista
Ask Excite
Ask HotBot
Ask Geocities


While some of these may still be around in one form or another... they're nowhere near as big as they once were.

forgot Ask Jeeves :awe:

 

[TwinsenTacquito]

If we had our open market back, it'd be impossible for a company to be "too big to fail". You let them fail when they should fail, and they will DOWNSIZE when they have grown in a non-competitive manner. You just leave them the fuck alone and everything works out perfectly.

Everyone should know this.

 

[Genx87]

They arent too big to fail. And I have dealt with their shitty customer service.

 

[kalrith]

I don't think any company has been or will ever be "too big to fail." Therefore, I put Google in that same category.

 

[PingSpike]

I don't think the federal government lets companies fail anymore, its against the law now.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

nothing is too big to fail. it just loses value until a competitor finds its worth assimilating the assets. if that never happens, then that is absolute proof the company had no point in existing anymore anyways.

 

[shortylickens]

nothing is too big to fail. it just loses value until a competitor finds its worth assimilating the assets. if that never happens, then that is absolute proof the company had no point in existing anymore anyways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZunMPWcOLY