Investors and analysts worry that regulatory pressure could pose an existential threat to the company's core search business. (newconstructs.com)
The company has come under pressure from outside shareholders to separate its higher - growth assets — notably its stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group — from its struggling core search and e-mail businesses, but such a split would be complicated by the fact that it could land the company with a large tax bill. (fortune.com)
As Munger suggested, Alphabet / Google's (GOOGL) core search ad business remains a one - of - a-kind Internet franchise — a natural monopoly in what remains the most lucrative corner of the online ad world, and one that's backed by a consumer brand powerful enough to have become a verb. (darwinwealthcreation.com)