Justin King: 'Tech firms behave in a way that would be unacceptable in any other industry'

We're 'past the point of peak tech'. Legislators will act on the monopolies controlled by Amazon and Google, says former Sainsbury's CEO King

Technology firms behave in a way which would be unacceptable in any other industry.

That's the opinion of Justin King, former Sainsbury's CEO, speaking at an event recently hosted by Computing's sister title CRN.

King explained his point by transferring what he sees as classic tech firm behaviour into another industry, in this case automotive.

"Let's put it into an old world context," said King. "If Ford wanted to buy Tesla and shut them down, it wouldn't be allowed.

"But Google buys firms and shuts them down all the time. They're quite proud of it, they call it fast fail. But they buy these firms, suck out what they need and then shut them down," he claimed.

He added that regulators and governments will move to prevent or change this behaviour, but not in the immediate future.

"Legislators will act but it will be late as it always is," he said.

He also discussed Amazon, claiming that the retail giant will only truly be worth $1 trillion (a market capitalisation threshold it briefly crossed recently) if it uses its market position to up its prices.

"Amazon will only be worth $1 trillion if it uses its monopolistic powers to price its goods. But legislators don't allow monopolies.

"We're already past the point of peak tech," he concluded, arguing that the technology giants should expect their time of free rein to end once legislators act to curb them.

King also discussed his time at the helm of Sainsbury's, telling the audience how to manage a successful business transformation underpinned by technology.