An AI-hungry Google (GOOG, GOOGL) isn’t playing nice with one of the largest content publishers on the internet.
“Here’s the truth. For a long time, we had a deal with Google, an unwritten deal, which was ‘you can use our content to build your search product, and in return, we get sessions,’” People Inc. (PPLI) CEO Neil Vogel told Yahoo Finance from the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Tech Conference (video above). “Now the search product has turned into an AI product by and large, and they still use our content to train their AI, both in real time and in a training way — we don’t have to get into the AI terminology of it — but now they don’t share anything with us.”
Google’s push into AI-powered summaries has upended search traffic for publishers. Many fear the situation will get worse, triggering more sweeping cost cuts among many players in 2026.
Vogel said the company has signed content licensing deals with Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), and OpenAI (OPAI.PVT). Ideally, he would also like to ink one with Google.
He stopped short of saying he would turn off Google from crawling People’s content.
“So we’re going to make an economic decision on it,” Vogel said. “We obviously can’t turn them off now. They’re still an important part of our business. I don’t want to turn them off. I want to get to a reasonable economic solution. I think we can, I’m hopeful we can. We have no progress now, but we’ll see.”
Despite the pressured search traffic, People has managed to post 11 straight quarters of digital revenue growth. Adjusted operating profits rose 15% from the prior year in the second quarter.
Vogel and People have a lot going on besides wrestling with Google, to say the very least.
People — which rebranded from IAC in 2025 to reflect its major media brands, such as People and Food & Wine — submitted an $18 billion proposal in June to acquire all outstanding shares of MGM Resorts International (MGM) that it does not already own. The company — founded by media legend Barry Diller — currently holds a 26.1% stake in MGM.
Regarding the car rental platform Turo, People holds approximately a 31% stake, remaining its largest external shareholder following an initial $250 million investment in 2019.
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor, host of the Power Players with Brian Sozzi podcast, and a member of Yahoo Finance’s editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
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