Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, June 30, 2017

Article Excerpt

ALPHABET INC., Nasdaq symbols GOOG (class C non-voting), $908.73, and GOOGL (class A voting), $929.68, is the holding company for Google’s Internet search business and its smaller, riskier operations. Alphabet calls those smaller businesses its “Other Bets”; they sell home thermostats, high-speed Internet and digital TV services, among other tech products. This week, European anti-trust regulators fined the company 2.42 billion euros ($2.76 billion U.S.). They have accused Google of using its search engine to unfairly steer consumers to its own shopping websites instead of competing services. The fine is small next to the $5.4 billion, or $7.73 a share, that Alphabet earned in the first quarter of 2017. Even so, it’s likely that the company will appeal. That’s because the ruling could make it easier for other companies to sue Alphabet claiming that the search engine results harmed their businesses. Agreeing to this decision would also make it easier for regulators to force Google to change the computer algorithms that power…