After tech leader Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) got hit with a massive 2.42 billion Euro fine, it—not at all surprisingly—immediately launched a process to try and get that fine overturned or otherwise ameliorated. But the latest reports suggest that the process to make that reversal happen is not going well at all. That sent Alphabet stock down fractionally in Thursday afternoon’s trading.
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The latest word features European Union Court of Justice advocate Juliane Kokott, who recommended that the court confirm the fine as established on Alphabet, whose search results favored its own comparison shopping mechanisms above those of the competition. The European Commission found that Alphabet’s Google arm did indeed do just that, favoring its own tools in search engines, and thus hit Google with the fines in question.
That move was made clear back in 2017. Four years later, in 2021, Alphabet took the issue back to the General Court of the European Union, which upheld the fine as it was. That led to Alphabet filing an appeal with the Court of Justice this time, which looks like it’s about to be also rejected.
Planning Ahead with Layoffs
With Google pulling in as much cash as it does, you’d think it wouldn’t be that concerned about such a fine. But that may not be the case, as Google announced another round of layoffs measuring in the hundreds. Some of Google’s most recognizable products are getting staff cuts, including the Nest, Fitbit, Pixel, and even Google Assistant. Reports note that the reason behind the layoffs is to focus harder on artificial intelligence and put AI tools to work in things like, yes, Google Assistant. Already, some are pointing out that the very industry that created artificial intelligence is seeing job cuts strike as a result of that same artificial intelligence.
Is Alphabet a Buy, Hold, or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on GOOGL stock based on 27 Buys and seven Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 56% rally in its share price over the past year, the average GOOGL price target of $154.90 per share implies 9.9% upside potential.
