Francois Godard of Enders Analysis underlined the importance for payment platforms to “ know their customers. It is necessary that this simple diktat be followed by payment companies, understood as credit card companies. They shift the responsibility to the banks that have direct contact with consumers and potential pirates. And yet -he highlighted- the same is not applied for example in the porn industry, where controls are carried out: there is a different awareness of illegal industries in some countries."

Douglas McCabe, media analyst at Enders, said the growth of social media as a dominant news source raised questions over trust and reliability of information.

“The hierarchy and curation of discoverable content are not designed by news and information media, but by different criteria,” he said. “This reduces the influence and impact of news brands that invest in expensive journalism, with obvious implications for the economics of media and democracy itself.”

Gareth Sutcliffe, analyst at Enders Analysis, said that such a deal would be “really clunky” for consumers but “might be a way around the CMA”. “Microsoft will be running the numbers for a UK carve-out that will please the CMA,” he said. “They would be looking at least-worst options.”

Author of the Enders research, Claire Holubowsky, told The Addition "Public expectations of and interest in women's coverage are growing faster than ever before, and the space is primed for innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. Women's sport offers so much in terms of reach, advertising, and brand-building that there are myriad ways for news publishers to move and strategise - what matters is that they act (and soon!) to make the most of the opportunity provided by the Women's World Cup."

François Godard, an analyst at Enders Analysis, says: “German news is notoriously centrist, consensual and a little bit boring, so one could think there is an opportunity to be seized.”

He added “Reichelt may be the right man for this. He has a somewhat Trumpian profile – starting with his reported sex life. He also proved keen on populist news coverage.”

Claire Enders, a media analyst, said that there was likely to have been an “unfortunate misfit between the current expectations on valuation of the sellers and this buyer”. 

“What we had was a kangaroo court, which destroyed someone who did not commit a crime,” said Claire Enders, a London-based media analyst. “The BBC got drawn into the feeding frenzy. It got drawn into a trap set by The Sun.”

“The BBC is always in the crosshairs of party factions that have spent decades campaigning against its existence,” says Claire Enders, an independent media analyst.

Joseph Teasdale, head of tech at the research firm Enders Analysis, said some pro-competitive interventions by regulators, such as curtailing its ability to make its search engine the default, could threaten Google’s position in search.

“Google controls various surfaces—things like Chrome, Android, Google Assistant—and in the past the ability to make Google the default or only search engine on those surfaces helped maintain its dominance. This tying of Google search to other Google surfaces has been a focus for regulators,” he said.

But Teasdale said he doesn’t believe these interventions ultimately would have much of an effect on its search market share. “At this point Google search is genuinely preferred by users,” he said.

However, the fact that Google already faces intense antitrust scrutiny could make it harder for the company to strike back when competitors try to encroach on its territory.