Stock market investors generally seemed to remain in an optimistic mindset on Tuesday morning, with several market benchmarks pushing higher. However, the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +1.38%) wasn't able to join the party, and as of 12:15 p.m. ET, it was down a quarter percent.
Alphabet (GOOGL +2.81%) (GOOG +2.77%) has been on the rise for much of 2021, having flirted with the $2 trillion market cap mark recently. Even though the Google parent is moving slightly lower on Tuesday, a partnership with the much smaller growth stock Digital Turbine (APPS 2.44%) has investors looking at both stocks more closely.
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Digital Turbine's deal
Shares of Digital Turbine jumped more than 10% at the open Tuesday morning before giving up most of their gains by midday. The mobile-focused digital advertising platform provider announced a multi-year partnership with Google that should benefit both companies.
The general idea behind the partnership is for Digital Turbine to follow its product and growth strategy in supporting Google's Android mobile ecosystem. By giving the roughly 1 billion devices using Android the features of Digital Turbine's intelligent app discovery capabilities, Google hopes that Android users will get better mobile experiences that will drive more customers into the ecosystem.
Digital Turbine sees a lot of potential with the partnership. CEO Bill Stone noted that the company has worked with Google on Android for the past 10 years, but he expects that the new deal will expand its footprint in the ecosystem to better cover the mobile, television, and connected device landscape.
Investors in Digital Turbine have had to deal with extreme volatility. However, they're hopeful that the Google partnership will provide at least somewhat more predictability in future results.
Privacy concerns hit Alphabet
Meanwhile, shares of Alphabet were lower by less than 1%. The move appeared attributable to investors pulling back from the Nasdaq's recent gains, but the company also got some news that reminded shareholders of the challenges Alphabet faces on the privacy front.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai must be available for questioning in a lawsuit from users of its Chrome browser, according to the latest ruling from a federal court judge. The lawsuit alleges that the company tracked internet usage despite the users taking advantage of Chrome's private-browsing mode, and the plaintiffs expressed their view that Pichai's testimony is essential to get a complete understanding of the privacy issues involved.
Alphabet has sought to address the tracking issue for quite a while now. Earlier in 2021, the company said that it would start to phase out its tracking cookies, with the intent of no longer using any form of activity tracking thereafter. That has generated some pushback from advertisers that have relied on being able to gather data and use metrics to target marketing to particular audiences more effectively.
With Alphabet's stock up nearly 70% so far in 2021, it's hard to take the slight decline in the share price on Tuesday very seriously. Many investors believe that Alphabet has a lot further to run if the economy continues to recover, and it's unlikely that massive reform in the safeguarding of personal information on the internet will take place so quickly that it takes the company by surprise.
