After tech giant Google lost its antitrust lawsuit, the US Department of Justice plans to push it to sell its Chrome browser and unbind its Android operating system from the Google Play Store.
On November 18th local time, according to foreign media reports, the US Department of Justice is requesting Judge Amit P. Mehta, who previously ruled in August that Google illegally monopolized the search market, to take measures to require Google to sell its Chrome browser. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice also hopes to impose restrictions on Google in areas such as data licensing and AI (artificial intelligence).
If Google is really asked to spin off its browser, it will become a departure from AT&T, the American telecommunications company; The largest US company spin off since T was spun off in 1984 dealt a historic blow to Google. According to data provided by network traffic analysis service StatCounter, Chrome browser currently holds a market share of approximately 61% in the United States.
Chrome browser is the key to Google's core advertising business. According to the Q3 2024 financial report of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, as of September 30th, Google's advertising business grew from $59.647 billion last year to $65.854 billion during the reporting period, exceeding market expectations. In addition, Google is also using Chrome to guide users to its AI giant model Gemini.
According to informed sources, antitrust officials from the Department of Justice have abandoned forcing Google to sell the Android operating system. Relevant lawyers have met with dozens of companies in the past three months and decided to demand that Google sell Chrome. However, if remedial measures can effectively control Google's monopoly on the market in other aspects, the Department of Justice can decide whether it is necessary to sell Chrome later.
At the same time, the Department of Justice will recommend Judge Meta to impose data licensing requirements on Google, ordering Google to authorize its search engine's search results and data, and provide more options for other websites to prevent Google's AI products from using their own data. In addition, the Department of Justice hopes that Google will separate the Android operating system from other products, including search and the Google Play mobile app store, and no longer bundle them for sale.
Regarding this, Lee Anne Mulholland, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Google, stated that the Department of Justice "continues to push for a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal scope of this case. She added, "Government intervention in this way will harm the interests of consumers, developers, and American technology leaders at the most critical moment
Mandeep Singh, an industry research analyst at Bloomberg, believes that it is highly unlikely that Google will be forced to sell its Chrome browser. However, Singh said that if this happens, AI big model manufacturers such as OpenAI may become buyers of Chrome to expand their business.
Renowned technology journalist Mark Gurman also stated on the X (formerly Twitter) platform that forcing Google to sell Chrome is "absurd," and the proposal to split the Android operating system and Google Play is also absurd: "Chrome is worth billions of dollars to Google, but not so much in the open market. Any company that buys it will only create a new monopoly
On the 18th, Google's (Nasdaq: GOOGL) stock price rose 1.63% to close at $175.30 per share, with a total market value of $2.15 trillion. After the news came out, Google's after hours stock price fell nearly 1%.
This antitrust lawsuit began in 2020, jointly sued by the US Department of Justice and 52 state and jurisdictional attorneys general against Google. On August 5th local time, Judge Meta, who is responsible for this case, announced the verdict, finding that Google's search business violated US antitrust laws. Judge Meta stated that he will strive to make a ruling on the remedial measures in this case before August 2025. Google has announced that it will appeal the case once remedial measures are determined.
After the stock market closed on October 29th local time, Google's parent company Alphabet released its financial report for the third quarter of 2024, ending on September 30th. According to the financial report, Alphabet achieved a revenue of 88.268 billion US dollars in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 15%; Non GAAP net profit was $26.301 billion, a year-on-year increase of 34%; Diluted earnings per share were $2.12, a year-on-year increase of 37%.