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- Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak told Bloomberg he wishes Apple had split up its business "a long time ago."
- He said that he is "pretty much in favour" of splitting up big, monopolistic tech companies, in comments that coincide with wider political scrutiny of major US tech firms.
- While Apple is not the subject of an official antitrust investigation, third parties including Spotify have filed antitrust complaints against the company.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak has added his voice to the calls to break up big tech, and even said he wishes Apple had broken up its business.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Wozniak said that there is a tendency for big tech companies to abuse their monopoly power.
"I am really against monopoly powers being used in unfair antitrust manners, not opening up the world to equal competition, using your power in unfair ways, and I think that’s happened a lot in big tech and they can get away with a lot of bad things," said Wozniak.
"A company that has a strong presence in one market using that presence to grow another market is sort of unfair," he said, adding that he’s "pretty much in favour of looking into splitting up companies."
Read more: Big tech warned by top regulator: We will break you up if we have to
"I wish Apple on its own had split up a long time ago and spun off independent divisions to far away places and let them think independently the way Hewlett Packard did when I worked there," he said. Hewlett Packard split its business in 2015, dividing its printer and PC business (HP) from its data storage and enterprise business (HPE).
Apple has been swept up in the antitrust gaze now being squarely leveled at Silicon Valley.
Although it’s not the subject of an official investigation like Facebook, or even the rumblings of one as is the case for Amazon, Apple is the target of multiple antitrust complaints levelled by third-parties.
One such complaint was filed in the EU by music-streaming service Spotify, which alleges that the company abuses the dominance of its app store to levy charges on in-app subscription while running a competing music-streaming service, Apple Music.
Wozniak, who left the company in 1985, often weighs in on Apple’s strategy. In February he said he worried the company had fallen behind on the trend of folding phone displays.
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SEE ALSO: The EU is reportedly investigating Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency over antitrust concerns
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Isobel Asher Hamilton)