IAC Inc and Expedia Group Inc chair Barry Diller wrote to senior Google executives that he was “on the edge of revolt” over the search engine’s increased number of ads on its results page, pushing down the organic listings.
“I must say I’m on the edge of revolt now that Google’s actions are so punitive, not just for Expedia but also for IAC and all the players that depend upon something of a level playing field,” Diller wrote in a Dec 12, 2019 email to Google’s chief business officer Philipp Schindler. Later in the email, Diller said his companies spend “$6.5 billion dollars a year in media, the majority going to Google”.
Schindler forwarded Diller’s email to chief executive officer Sundar Pichai, who was asked about the message during his testimony Monday at the Justice Department’s antitrust trial against Google.
Pichai said Diller was unhappy about Google’s introduction of additional travel listings, which he called “one of the most popular experiences we’ve built”.
IAC is a holding company whose brands include Ask.com, Angi Inc, and Dotdash Meredith Inc among others.
A former Expedia executive testified earlier this month that the company’s advertising costs on Google ballooned 10 times over a five-year period, but failed to increase traffic after the search engine started showcasing its own flight and hotel information.
IAC spun-off Expedia in 2005, though Diller remains chairman and a senior executive at the company. – Bloomberg
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