U.S. antitrust probe to be credit negative for Google - Moody's
June 5 (Reuters) - Ratings agency Moody's Investor Service said on Wednesday that reports of U.S. agencies probing the business practices and market position of Alphabet Inc's Google are credit negative for the technology giant.
The U.S. government is gearing up to investigate whether Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc and Google misused their massive market power and their leaders will be asked to testify as part of the probe.
Although there is no impact on Alphabet's Aa2 long-term debt rating, short term credit rating or its stable outlook right now, the ratings agency's main concern is that the regulations could have any material impact that could change the business model.
On Monday, Google's shares fell 6% after reports that the U.S. Justice Department may investigate Google for hampering competition.
Shares of Alphabet were down 1.2% at $1,045.8.
(Reporting by Sayanti Chakraborty in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel)
