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GOOGLE

Google sets sights on Sweden

US firm Google has invested significantly in Sweden in the past decade, with three of its 14 acquisitions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa since 2001 in the country.

Google sets sights on Sweden

The purchase of Global IP Solutions early this year followed the acquisition of Marratech and Trendalyzer in 2007, and the search engine giant is on the hunt for more innovative technology firms.

“Our Swedish buys have been very good. It is no coincidence. Sweden has great engineers and active venture capitalists,” said Anil Hansjee, who is responsible for Google’s acquisitions in the region, to Dagens Industri (DI).

Hansjee told the newspaper that the firms act as Google “scouts” to help in the hunt for further prospective buys.

“This makes me all the more convinced that we will make further Swedish acquisitions,” he said to DI.

Hansjee cited Sweden’s quality universities, active venture capitalists and “the legacy of Ericsson” as contributing factors that make the country an attractive destination for further investment from Google.

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BUSINESS

Google News to return to Spain after seven-year spat

Google announced Wednesday the reopening of its news service in Spain next year after the country amended a law that imposed fees on aggregators such as the US tech giant for using publishers’ content.

Google News to return to Spain after seven-year spat
Google argues its news site drives readers to Spanish newspaper and magazine websites and thus helps them generate advertising revenue.Photo: Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

The service closed in Spain in December 2014 after legislation passed requiring web platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay publishers to reproduce content from other websites, including links to their articles that describe a story’s content.

But on Tuesday the Spanish government approved a European Union copyright law that allows third-party online news platforms to negotiate directly with content providers regarding fees.

This means Google no longer has to pay a fee to Spain’s entire media industry and can instead negotiate fees with individual publishers.

Writing in a company blog post on Wednesday, Google Spain country manager Fuencisla Clemares welcomed the government move and announced that as a result “Google News will soon be available once again in Spain”.

“The new copyright law allows Spanish media outlets — big and small — to make their own decisions about how their content can be discovered and how they want to make money with that content,” she added.

“Over the coming months, we will be working with publishers to reach agreements which cover their rights under the new law.”

News outlets struggling with dwindling print subscriptions have long seethed at the failure of Google particularly to pay them a cut of the millions it makes from ads displayed alongside news stories.

Google argues its news site drives readers to newspaper and magazine websites and thus helps them generate advertising revenue and find new subscribers.

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