[tdubhro1]

I’d suggest they care less about new products diversifying income and more about new products making them look diversified and less like a monopoly. That is the logic behind changing their name to “Alphabet”, distract from their utter dominance in search. Their only real fear and existential threat is from the govt doing an antitrust on them and forcing a breakup, hence it’s worth a few billion every year to keep that wolf from the door.

[roydivision]

This is a great point, I agree. I’d add, if they are serious, Google need also to fear disruption from an as yet unknown source. This has killed many a dominant company, and by its nature difficult to predict and safeguard against.

[tdubhro1]

I agree that disruption is the other major threat, which they also pour billions into via acquisitions and VC activities. My guess though is that the possibility of govt action is what really scares them, and most of the tech elite. You can tell when Google realised this by noting that they went from spending almost nothing on lobbying to spending quite a lot (coinciding roughly with their transition from “don’t be evil” to “c’mon, man, be real “)

It’s not that long ago that Microsoft was facing the very real possibility of antitrust, so it’s very much something leaders of tech companies have a duty (to shareholders) to defend against.