MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – MAY 16: The exterior of the new Google Bay View campus is photographed on Monday, May 16, 2022, in Mountain View, Calif. The 42 acres campus totals 1.1 million square feet, with two office buildings, an event center, and 20 acres of open space. Federal prosecutors hinted at a breakup of Google in proposals to a federal judge set on stripping the Mountain View technology giant ofoverseeing the U.S.
The DOJ did not explicitly call for breaking up Google or forcing it to spin off business units such as its browser and operating system, said Cristina Caffarra, an economist tracking the case for the London-based Center for Economic Policy Research. But the filing “suggests carve outs” from the company, Caffarra said.contending that “splitting off Chrome or Android would break them — and many other things.” Google has not yet responded in court to DOJ’s proposals.
But Wedbush analysts have concluded that the chances of Google getting broken up stand at less than 5%, Ives said. The mild slide in Google’s stock price since the antitrust filing suggests Wall Street investors are not banking on a breakup, Ives said. “Breaking them off would change their business models, raise the cost of devices, and undermine Android and Google Play in their robust competition with Apple’s iPhone and App Store,” Google said. And because so many software developers and device makers use its browser and operating system across industries from cars to laptops to apps, the company said “changes could impact many businesses and the people who use their services.
Google asserted in its blog post that “over-broad restrictions” on such contracts that it claimed are “designed to make Google Search easily available” would “create friction for people who just want to easily search for information.”